“We have contracts.” Sam said, slapping a sheaf of papers down on the breakfast table.
“What's this, four of them?” Gavin asked, flicking through the contracts. “Two level one and two level two's? Guess there's going to be more now the detection network is getting more established.”
“We'll likely have a big wave of them to fight over the next few days, the areas the Storm Wardens haven't been through yet will still be getting monsters spawning even though we're not detecting them.”
“Yeah, I reckon we can probably split these up, if I take Sam, and Val takes Judy we should be able to take a level one and level two contract each, portal out to that funny mountain with the rock, then Judy opens a portal out north east and I go south east, meet back up at the mountain?”
“I agree” Sam said “there's no reason for us all to go together, we need to be training as well as clearing contracts or we'll stagnate.”
“I'll knock together a few basic level two arrows for you before we get stuck in Judy” Gavin said, producing a bundle of them from his inventory, enchanting a handful at a time while he ate his eggs on toast.
“Thanks, the ones I've got aren't great at killing level two monsters.”
They set off as soon as they'd eaten, portalling out east, landing on a crescent shaped mountain that appeared as though a god had smooshed a thumb into the countryside, pressing up a high ridge of rock that overhung the depression below. The wind was crisp up here, whipping up the rock face in periodic bursts.
Gavin handed over his stack of arrows, Similarly enchanted to his bullets to explode on contact with an enemy, then watched as Judy and Val disappeared through a copied portal. He and Sam waited for his power to come off cooldown before opening up his own, transporting them twenty five kilometres south east to a point he could spot at the far edge of his portal range.
“Just like old times. Us two wandering through the bush to go kill a bunch of monsters.” Gavin said with a cheery smile.
“It's been a while.” Sam said, “try not to get yourself killed again today.”
“That's a lot harder to do now.”
“You did nearly get killed by a chicken.”
“It was higher level than me.” Gavin argued “anyway, we'd better keep a look out for this encounter.”
“Like that extradimensional pocket over there?”
“Ahh, yeah, like that one.”
The space was undulating erratically, almost ready to collapse. Spikes of mirrored light pulsed in waves across its surface.
“Let's do this.” Gavin said, cracking his knuckles, picking up his pace as the two adventurers sprinted headlong through the scrubland into the bubble. Through the other side was a lavish garden. Perfectly tended beds of flowers sprawled out in spiralling patterns, like a natural mandala they had appeared in the middle of.
“So uhh, no monster?” Gavin asked, looking around “doesn't look like a puzzle, wonder if there's a magical orchid or something in here we need to find?”
“If there's another dryad in here-” Sam began, placing an armoured boot into the centre of a red patch of flowers.
The ground opened up under her as a gaping maw engulfed her foot. Stumbling back she wrenched a pig sized molerat from the earth, its lamprey teeth gnawing at the metal of her boot. She trailed arcing flashes of blue as she stomped it into the ground even as its jaws gnawed at her foot.
Gavin obliterated the monster with a shot from his new gun, the bullet punching a bucket sized hole through its body. He touched the creature with a boot, dissolving It into ash before Sam could shake it free.
“So, monsters then ” he said dryly as the earth began to boil around them.
He floated himself into the air as Sam transformed into her awakened tree form, Her sword slashing great arcs around her, scything into the dozens of creatures trying to inundate her.
Gavins rifle cycled continuously, blasting monsters off of his friend as he conjured shields around her the instant they came off cooldown. He threw his two D12's out, sending them racing in a tight arc outside of Sam's threat range, the two stones boring bloody holes through dozens of the monsters.
Even so, they came from below, digging the earth out from under Sam as she dodged and hacked her way to fresh ground, blurring to pull herself free of the swarming wall of flesh. Her sword glowed with divine light, barely noticing the resistance as it swung in circles obliterating molerats in droves.
Gavin barely had to aim as he pumped shot after shot into the mass of bodies trailing after Sam, killing one with every pull on the trigger.
‘Now’ Sam called through their telepathic link, activating her radiance of the dawn ability.
Brilliant white light scoured the ruined garden, burning everything it touched save for her allies. Shrieks of pain cut short as everything within a dozen metres died within her cleansing aura.
There were still more, boring their way through the earth to push up all around the patch of wasteland. Gavin fuelled Sam with his own power, topping off her mana and cooldowns. She scrubbed them clear of the garden with another wave of light, then another.
Gavins jaw set in grim determination, sighting enemy after enemy, watching it disintegrate in front of him. They were gradually thinning, Sam doing the lion's share of the killing. As the horde grew more sporadic and the ground harder to traverse Gavin came into his own, his enchanted chunks of metal gathering more and more speed as he forced more will into them, blending anything that drew near while he picked off stragglers.
Before the work was complete, he broke off his shooting to start looting. When the last monster was killed they wouldn't have long until the pocket reality collapsed around them. He was close to done when he felt the space destabilise, he looked over to Sam wrenching her sword from the last corpse. Nodding to her they began walking for the barrier.
They portalled over to their next location, just six kilometres south. Traipsing through the bush they heard the unmistakable sounds of battle. Without pausing to consider their actions, they rushed through the trees, crashing headlong towards the clamour.
Eight dire wolves, as tall as person at the shoulder, stalked a small group of young men, teeth bared and bloody. The five men formed into a defensive circle, spears pointed outwards, jabbing threateningly at their enemy. Four men lay dead, ragged wounds and severed limbs laying in pools of blood that splattered across the loamy earth. Five more wolves lay scattered among them, some burned and blackened, others with wounds that could not have come from the simple weapons the men carried.
Sam transformed into her awakened form, ethereal wings sprouted from her back as she plunged into battle, her sword bit deeply into the back of the closest wolf. She blurred into motion, pivoting to attack a second as Gavin unloaded four shots in quick succession, turning the wolf's torso to pulp.
The wolves reacted as one, manoeuvring to attack Sam, the first biting down on a bubble shield that burst in its mouth, the second finding Sam's shining sword punching straight down its gullet. Blinding white light bathed the rest in radiant light.
The warriors leapt into action, fanning out to lay into one of the wolves. Gavin felt a surge of power radiating from the group, he watched as their tattoos glowed with ethereal light. A wave of energy washed down the heavily tattooed arms of a man, red light erupting from the tip of his spear the instant it made contact with a wolf.
Gavin cycled through his soulbound ammunition, following Sam as she moved between the wolves with grace, using his gun to finish off nearly dead enemies, or distract any that made a lunge she wasn't prepared to defend. Any wolves that came his way he avoided, teleporting to safe spaces in the battlefield to continue his assault.
A third and a fourth wolf Fell to the knights while the warriors killed a second. The remaining two scattered, seeing their pack mates fall so quickly as the tide of battle changed. Gavin teleported after one, Sam leaping after the other. They harried their prey, crippling and cutting them down as they chased them through the forest.
Gavin returned to the grizzly scene a minute later finding Sam dragging a corpse by its hind leg, drooling blood back through the trees, she tossed it down on the ground like a sack of grain.
“You guys alright?” Gavin asked as the group of men watched silently with suspicion and fear etched on their faces.
Scanning about the battlefield, he noticed one of the fallen men wheezing, his arm gored stump, trickling blood. He fell to the man's side, pressing his own health into the man as Sam did the same. Shouts from behind gave Gavin pause as their patient's wound closed.
“What's wrong?” Gavin said, as a man approached, weapon in hand.
The man extended the butt of his spear, nudging Gavin aside and pushing Sam back from their fallen companion gently but firmly.
“What's this about mate?” Gavin asked, confused and angry “he's going to be okay, look.”
The man uttered a few harsh words Gavin couldn't understand, gesturing to the downed man with his spear. They watched as the intricate swirling tattoos around the man's chest and neck faded from the point of his ruined arm.
“What's that? How are they fading?” Gavin wondered, “is our healing doing that?”
“I think it must be, tattoos don't usually stick to people with soul powers unless they're especially meaningful, though these should be extremely meaningful to the Nalan people.”
“Maybe it's- wait, your aura Sam, shut it off.”
“Oh, shit” Sam said, mentally designating the warriors as neutral and not allies.
“Sorry,” Gavin said, palms up. “At least he'll live now.”
The men said something in their native language, bending down to pick their companion up, pity on their faces. Gavin moved through the battlefield, looting the corpses to the shock and amazement to the Nalan warriors. He looted his and Sam's kills first, followed by the ones killed by the others, placing the pile of fur, solars, teeth and affinity crystal of the hunt he'd picked off their corpses down on the ground for them.
“This is yours” he said, gesturing to the looted materials then to the men.
The warriors picked over the gear, shouting excitedly as they discovered the affinity crystal. They grinned wildly as they clapped Gavin on the shoulder and pulling him into an embrace. They picked the furs, and pressed the coins into Gavins hands.
“Nah mate, these are yours.” he said “you earned them.”
Thinking for a moment he gestured for a man to take a coin. Producing a fur from his inventory he took the coin and offered the fur to the man. Understanding washed over his face, as Gavin produced several more furs and traded them for a handful of coins, leaving a substantial pile behind. Next he proffered the crystal the team had looted from the obsidian dragon, taking the remaining coins in exchange.
The men stared in wonder at the shard of dark crystal, swirling with fiery light inside. One of them placed a hand on Gavin's head, muttering something that felt a lot like a religious sacrament, he moved to touch Gavin’s hand, taking it in his calloused grip and holding it to his own forehead as he continued the prayer.
“I think they like soul crystals.” Sam shrugged.
“Seems like it.” Gavin said awkwardly as he pulled away from the group, “looked to me like their tattoos are giving them power.”
“That's what I was thinking.” Sam said.
“You reckon they use the crystals to make the tattoos somehow?”
“looks that way to me.” She guessed.
“Are you guys okay to get back to Nyümbakka?” Gavin asked, pointing at the men then back in the direction of the town.
“Nyümbakka! Nyümbakka eru.” One man said.
He opened his portal back to the meeting spot then said “Nyümbakka through there.”
He fabricated two wooden replicas of his portal and a model of himself, passing it through the first portal he deconstructed the model, fabricating another stepping out of the second portal.
“Nakt, a ini eru.” the man said, gesturing walking with his fingers.
“Come on, let's get going Sam, catch you guys later” he said, shrugging then waving to the group of warriors.
“That was odd, I wonder how much trouble we’ll be in with the guild?” Sam asked as they stepped back through the portal.
“Trouble with the guild?” Val asked, concern in her voice “what'd you guys do? Fail the contract.”
“Gavin made friends with the locals.”
“Did he? They talked with him and didn't hate him afterwards?”
“Hey, plenty of people like me.” Gavin complained.
“Name five people that aren't us that like you.” Val, ashed, folding her arms across her chest as she smirked at him.
“Look, let's not get into this, it's smoko time and I'm hungry.”
“Don't be so mean Val, you know he struggles to count to big numbers like five.” Judy said.
“Oh fuck you Judy” Gavin laughed uproriously “I'll have you know I can count to at least twenty.”
“Is that using all your fingers and toes?” Sam piled on.
“You guys suck.” Gavin said, offering out a tray of pies.
Ten minutes later they portalled back to town, taking Val to complete the paperwork. They strode into the guild administration building, taking a seat at the bench to write.
“So uhh, Haylee.” Gavin said, placing the forms down on her desk.
“Why do you sound guilty?”
“It's in the report, but long story short we ran into some of the locals out there.”
“You what?” Haylee said, groaning.
“They were about to be attacked by some dire wolves, Sam and I stepped in to help them, we healed one of them-”
“You didn't? This is not good.”
“It's okay, I think, I gave them a couple of soul crystals and they seemed pretty happy.”
“More than one?”
“Yeah, I looted one off the wolves they'd killed before we got there, and traded them a second for the coins.”
“Hunt and dragon?” She said, reading Gavin’s short essay at a glance “how did you get a crystal of the dragon?”
“Killed a dragon in an extradimensional pocket, some bloke failed the quest back in Edomont so we took it on.”
“Back when you were level one?”
“Val was level two.” Gavin shrugged.
“I guess sensible wardens don't put their hands up for assignments like this” Haylee sighed.
“I guess not.” Gavin agreed, “anyway, let us know how much of a diplomatic incident today will be.”
“You- hold on” Haylee said, frowning “new contract just came through, level three.”
“Well shit” Gavin groaned, “we have twenty four hours to complete it?”
“Yes.”
“Cool, give it here, I guess I'm gonna be a busy boy today.”
Taking the contact he and Val returned to the fortress. He called a meeting to let the team know about the contract.
“Okay team. I'm going to get my enchanting ability to level three today, we can't go into an unknown threat with level one gear, I'll do my best to knock up a set of level three gear for Judy and basic weapons for us all. It won't be fancy, but they'll keep us alive.”
“You three can go. I can sit it out.” Judy said soberly.
“No.” Sam said definitively, “we will need you. We already have a small team, dropping you because you're under levelled won't help us.”
“You'll be okay Jude, I'll get you kitted out” Gvin said, patting her shoulder. “Alright guys, I'm going to the workshop, I may be some time.”
He threw himself into his work, knowing this time his efforts could mean the difference between life and death for his friends. He was only a day or so away at his relaxed pace, so it took only hours for him to break through the level three barrier.
[Expert Smith]
(Level 1): Expend additional mana during the crafting process to enhance the resulting item proportional to your rank in this ability up to a limit determined by the material of the item.
(Level 2): Crafting items requires fewer resources. Crafting multiple duplicate items simultaneously has a reduced mana cost proportional to your rank in this ability for each additional item.
(Level 3): Mana and stamina costs are reduced. Fabricated items can be imbued with additional mana when using this ability to enhance the maximum mana capacity of the item.
[Fabricate]
(Level 1): Construct items of up to your level in this ability from raw resources in your possession. Mana cost varies depending on item complexity and your [intelligence] attribute
(Level 2): Mana and stamina costs to use this ability are reduced.
(Level 3): Fabricated items can be imbued with additional mana when using this ability to enhance the maximum mana capacity of the item.
[Otherworldly Enchanter]
(Level 1):Enchant an item using a known enchanting template for a variable mana cost determined by the complexity and strength of the enchantment. Enchanted items have a greater effect proportional to your [Spirit] attribute
(Level 2): User may create soulbound items for an additional mana cost during the creation process.
(Level 3): User can create set items, set items gain greater synergy when worn or carried, maximum number of set items determined by your level in this ability. Copy enchantment architecture between items for a variable mana cost proportional to item complexity and users level in this ability.
Then he set about crafting gear for the team. First and easiest was a set of four soulbound arrows that used a similar enchantment to his bullets for Judy. Next a level three bow, cruder and more powerful than her existing one, not taking the time or effort to make it able to soulbind it was just for raw damage. He fabricated a sword for Sam and two for Val in a similar way, designed to deal damage and enhance speed and strength.
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Lastly was their armour, crafting four identical sets for them all to wear. They were all of similar design with the notable difference being the colour of the cloth tying them all together; a deep sunset orange for Sam, copper-green for Val, fiery red for Judy, and violet for himself.
He collapsed into bed well after midnight, absolutely drained having pushed himself right to the limit for half the day and night. Sam woke him the next morning, frowning at his still exhausted state.
“You going to be okay?” Sam said.
“Yeah, give me an hour and I'll be fine.” he said groggily. “Come on, Santa's bought us all presents.”
Gavin stumbled into the dining room where a plate of food had been laid out for him. He devoured it greedily, having pushed through dinner the previous night without stopping.
“So everyone has new gear, it's mostly pretty rough, but I do have some arrows that are actually good.” Gavin said, floating a bundle of arrows over to Judy.
“These are fantastic.” She beamed.
[Item: Demon Slayer]
Type: Ammunition, Arrow
Description: Will one hit kill anyone in the Salty Spitoon.
Effect: Detonates on contact with an enemy dealing [radiant] and [force] damage.
Effect: Soulbound
Gavin handed out the rest of their gear. He knew it wasn't close to his best work but it was better than what they all had, even Vals old armour and weapons were less durable and dealt less damage than the simple items he played out before them. The team were grateful regardless, amazed at the speed he'd churned out their new armour and weapons.
“So, are we ready to get going?” Sam asked.
“Not yet, I'm going to reforge my bullets up to level three, it won't take long, and it'll give me time to recover, Sam, you mind sticking around so I can leech off your aura?”
“Sure, but we don't have a lot of time.”
“I'd rather be pressed for time than ineffective in combat.”
“Fine, I agree.” Sam conceded.
An hour later Gavin was ready. The team suited up into their new armour, Gavin and Judy having a much easier time of it with their inventory powers than the other two who had to put it on the conventional way. They opened a portal out into the jungle, then another, and another.
“I think I spot it.” Judy said, pointing out into the nook between two ridges on the side of a mountain.
“It's pretty big.” Gavin confirmed, looking at the colossal glowing bubble nestled in the trees.
“We need to be quick about taking down whatever's inside without becoming reckless.” Sam said.
“It could just be a big puzzle.” Judy Suggested “We've had a couple of those before.
“We've also had a shrine to a hostile god try to eat us.” Val reminded her.
“Well, while we wait for my portal to come off cooldown, I'm gonna reforge my D12's” Gavin said, sitting down on a dead log.
***
Ten minutes later the team portalled through to the extradimensional space. Without pausing they stepped inside. A feeling of dread washed over them, it felt like the inevitability of death had noticed them. They were in a large stone chamber, unlit braziers lined the walls to either side while the ceiling disappeared into the impenetrable darkness.
They moved forward, weapons drawn and ready. Gavin floated a string of glow globes out in front of them to illuminate the way. A bannister loomed up in front of them overlooking an empty void, a small platform extended out over the abyss, a waist high lever set into the floor. Steeling himself Gavin stepped out onto the platform.
“Let's get this done.” Gavin sighed, resting his elbows out over the handrail “fights in the dark always suck.”
They filed on to the platform and he pulled the lever. It ground uncomfortably in its socket before clanking home. With a lurch the platform dropped, the sound of metal on metal screeching from whatever mechanism lowered them into the inky blackness. The platform groaned and complained the whole way down, shuddering rhythmically every few seconds.
“You reckon they've heard us?” Gavin yelled over the din.
“I think so yeah” Sam replied, her new sword lighting up with radiant energy.
They came to a halting stop, crashing to the ground with a thunderous clang. Cold stale air washed over them, thick with decay. A trickle of water seeped over the platform, creeping murky tendrils along the grooves between planks.
“I think we should probably take some potions of disease resistance.” Gavin suggested, four vials appearing between each of his fingers. “I don't think whatever's out there is going to be very hygienic.”
“Good call, there's little black specks floating in the water.” Judy said, crouching to run a finger through the thin film covering the platform.
Throwing back the sickly sweet shot of potion Gavin stepped off the platform into ankle deep water. He felt the brackish marsh flood through his boots, saturating his socks.
“First project when we get home is finding a waterproofing enchantment.” Gavin shuddered, “wet socks are the actual worst.”
“I thought poo elementals were the actual worst?” Sam asked.
“They are, but wet socks are too.”
He aimed his rifle around the cavern, seeing nothing in the dim light his glow globes gave off. Black water expanded out in all directions, to their back was the stone wall that led up to the way out. At the edges the wall became natural stone, cragged and rough edges were smoothed by layers of muck and slime that oozed down in glistening sheets. Along the wall, deep fissures cut into the rock, disappearing into black voids.
“Aaand there it is.” Gavin groaned as they moved out into the centre of the chamber.
A bus sized slug, trailing a web of sticky mucus sloshed out of a hole in the back of the room, spraying foul ichor as it flopped down into the water. Four stalks protruded from its face, glowing red eyes fixated on the knights. A metre long vertical mouth, rowed with dagger-like teeth split its grey, featureless face.
“Watch out for tricks.” Sam said, her new sword raised in a high guard, bright light radiating off it in all directions. “This thing looks too easy, it has to have something else going for it.”
“I guarantee it does.” Gavin said, an uneasy feeling spiking his gut.
The slug undulated forward in a rush, using its inertia to slide itself across the slimy ground. Bullets and arrows pelted it's leathery skin, exploding against it without penetrating as Gavin and Judy began the fight. Red welts formed where they hit it, bruising over as they watched. Viscous goo sloughed over the superficial wounds, healing them back to their former featureless grey just as fast as they could pile the damage on.
“Its impervious to your attacks.” Sam called.
“Go for the eyes.” Gavin yelled, pointing at its glowing, orb like protuberances.
Val sent her two new animated swords up to slash at them while Gavin’s freshly reforged spiked adamantium balls slammed into them followed quickly by a hail of fire from his rifle and Judy's bow.
Sam strode forward, growing in size as her body became subsumed in her tree form. Giant, ghostlike wings erupted from her back as she flew in one great leap five metres into the air, her greatsword hacking straight into an open eye.
Gavin wrapped Sam in a bubble shield the instant she sliced the eye in half, the glistening organ exploded in a shower of thick green goo. It splattered and hissed against the blue field of energy, quickly eating through it and shattering it into shards. She landed heavily, dodging to the side as the slug rolled over, threatening to crush her beneath its bulk.
Two more eyes erupted in a shower of pus, then the third as Vals animated swords sawed through, drawing against each other in opposite directions like shears. With a roar the slug bellowed spittle from its jagged maw, growing in volume until the knights had to cover their ears against the deafening wail. Then, the slug unzipped itself, its mouth tearing open at the seam, opening a ragged maw down the length of its body revealing more and more teeth, layered in rows like some eldritch horror.
The creature was just one gigantic mouth, writhing in the muck. The wailing ceased as it twisted to stand on its teeth, like a twenty metre long centipede. The monster reared up, saliva drooling from its gob as its teeth chattered independently, waggling like tendrils.
“Ho-ly shit.” Gavin muttered, shooting his rifle in quick succession, his bullets exploded to minimal effect within the open mouth.
The monster rushed forward, leaping at Gavin, a wall of teeth ready to devour him. He jumped away, throwing his new and improved dice at it.
[Item: Haemorrhage hexahedron]
Type: Weapon, thrown
Rarity: Level three, legendary
Effect: Deals additional piercing damage
Effect: Damage inflicted causes the bleeding condition
Effect: Has a small chance to apply the haemorrhaging condition
Effect: Soulbound]
His hexahedrons, two twelve sided viciously spiked dice, flew out to impact The monster. Gavin forced his will into them, smashing them into its fleshy gums, he pushed on them with all the strength he could muster, drilling down with a spray of blood and gore.
The monster twisted, somersaulting backwards, to reverse its direction, bounding after Judy. Like Gavin, she teleported away, shooting arrows continuously from the opposite side of the cavern. Bellowing in frustration it went after Val, teeth churning the stone floor as it skittered its razor sharp teeth for traction.
Val prepared for its attack, her two animated swords trailing it, slashing into its back in the same spot, slowly wearing through its skin. She'd enhanced both of them with her soporific ability that was supposed to slow enemies down when they were damaged, but the monster was continuously resisting the effect. As the beast fell on her, she dodged to the left, becoming momentarily invisible, letting an illusory double of herself dodge to the right.
Her two held swords slashed at the gums of the monster as it twisted to devour her double. Thin lines of blood flowed from its wounds as she loaded it up with bleeding conditions. She felt Gavin refresh her illusory attack ability as the monster whipped around, ready to eat her whole. She leapt forwards under its teeth as her double leapt backwards, waiting until the monster adjusted its course to hack at it while she slid through the other side.
Evidently annoyed that its first three victims had continuously evaded it, the monster turned on the fourth and largest target; Sam. Its ribbon-like body wrapped itself up into a wheel, teeth side outwards. Slowly at first it rolled after her, picking up speed as it moved. Sam blurred to the side, bracing herself as she put all her considerable strength into a powerful strike as it rolled past. Her gigantic sword bit deeply into a gum, severing a single tooth before it caught and was wrenched from her hands.
“Just do that another three thousand times Sam.” Gavin called, tugging on the tooth with a tendril of force and adding it to his inventory.
“I'll need my sword for that.” she called, pulling her level one sword from her inventory, watching the monster turn around, her previous one jutting from it like a glowing toothpick.
“Working on it.” Gavin called, hauling on his hexahedrons, boring through its gums with all his strength, using them to dig the flesh out from around the sword.
Another tooth fell free along with a pile of soggy flesh. Blood poured from its wounds, flowing ever more freely as the multiple bleeding conditions stacked up.
Val had joined Sam, using her lightning fast charge to make an attack, her two swords hacking off one of its hind teeth. Her two animated swords pressed their edges along its rotating body, letting its own momentum slice itself on their edges.
Judy, left alone, was able to dump her mana into her attacks. Her bow would ordinarily be much to heavy for her to use, but her newly enhanced strength let her draw back the string without issue. The force it shot her arrows would be enough to disintegrate her stockpile of level one arrows, forcing her to use her new soulbound ones. Each arrow split into three, her newly levelled ability not only giving her an additional shot, but duplicating any effects on them instead of splitting the effect between them.
She teleported close to the monster as it rolled past the other two women, then activated her haste ability. Arms moving in a blur, she shot an arrow, her hand followed the string as it slammed forward shooting her first arrow, plucking the string back the instant it broke contact with the shaft. The effect was a string of blurred light as each arrow exploded against the monster, then reappeared back in her hand to be shot again.
She couldn't keep it up for long, her ability was only active for a few seconds, but the compounding effect of her abilities easily more than doubled her output. Chunks of flesh disappeared under her onslaught. Sam's sword flew free as the flesh around it disintegrated.
Cracking like a whip the monster unravelled itself, slashing its entire body at Judy, who dodged around the attack, teeth barely scratching her new armour as her lucky dodge ability negated the effects. Thrashing, the monster writhed unpredictably, its back end slashing rows of jagged teeth at her again, missing entirely as she teleported free.
With a roar it leapt after her again, missing as Gavin refreshed her teleport ability, letting her jump again immediately. Howling with rage the monster twisted itself into an ever shrinking leathery ball as it pulsed with dread light. Two detonations rang out from inside the monster as it crunched down on Gavin’s hexahedrons.
“This is it guys. Get ready.” Gavin called, drinking a recovery potion, the rest of the team following suit.
“Anyone else hear that?” Judy puffed.
“Ooooh yes.” Gavin groaned as a thousand screeches echoed through the cavern.
“Sounds like a nazg?l” Judy said, looking around for the source.
“Sounds like a lot of them.” Sam said.
“Hope not.” Gavin grunted, sending his glow globes out to illuminate the far corners of the area.
From out of the many cracks and crevices poured hundreds of animated corpses, animal intelligence behind their feral eyes. They came on in a sprinting rush, tendrils of death pouring in to attack their grouped enemies
“Gavin, plug those holes, Judy, get in the air, Val and I will fight down here” Sam ordered.
“On it.” Gavin said, teleporting through to the nearest wall, fabricating a thick plug of rock and stone to fill the crevice.
Jumping around the room he repeated the process, filling each jagged rent in the stone with a metre thick wall. He returned to the group to help finish off the last of the ghouls, moving between them to loot the corpses to clear the battlefield.
“So, wonder when that thing’s gonna hatch?” Gavin said, shooting the leathery ball, watching as the explosions had zero effect.
“Hatch?” Val asked, giving up as well, having no effect either.
“Its an egg, it's gonna hatch into something, see.” Gavin said as the SUV sized egg cracked.
“Be ready.” Sam ordered, her fingers flexing on her readied sword.
The egg split apart at the seams, falling to the ground in a pile of sticky fragments, a pool of bloody mucus flowed free, revealing a creature from Geiger's nightmares. It looked like a hairless leathery werewolf, the size of Sam in her awakened form, instead of a hound like face it was a vertical mouth That opened down to its navel. The same toothy maw of articulating dagger like teeth its centipede form had sported were back, this time with a forked tongue lolling from where its belly button should be complete with a spike at each tip. Four long arms unfolded from its sides, its claws sporting three glittering talons.
“So uhh, that doesn't look friendly.” Gavin suggested helpfully.
“No, it doesn't, are we sure that's a tongue?” Val asked, feeling queasy.
“Don't even go there” Sam warned “let's just kill this thing.”
She swung her radiant sword around her wrist, trailing white light in the gloom. Stalking forward she took three running steps, ethereal wings carrying her forward to slash at the monster.
With blinding speed it avoided her attack, raking two talons across her armour. Sparks erupted as they tore into the steel, peeling it open in two thin lines. Sam reacted, her sword redirecting to slash at the monster's back, drawing her own wound.
Judy rose high into the air, barely able to follow its movement. She wanted no part of its attacks, instead raining arrows down from above. She was glad of her ability to curve arrows, she'd be utterly useless without it, the demon moved too quickly for her to predict where it would be when the arrows hit.
Gavin similarly rose into the air, shooting it with his rifle and hexahedrons, aiming for its open mouth. He bored his spiked dice into it, trying to gore it the same as he'd done to its centipede form but it swallowed them, detonating them inside itself instead of taking the constant damage. Gavin didn't mind, damage was damage, his role here was to look out for his companions and keep their cooldowns refreshed while putting as many holes in it as possible.
The monster attacked Val with a series of blinding attacks, trying to grapple her into its open maw. She dodged and ducked, using her ability to create an illusory double to step around it as she attacked the beast, even so she was taking attacks. Its claws carving splinters of metal from her heavy armour wherever they landed.
In a stand up fight like this Sam and Val were both able to layer up their escalating damage in exchange for taking more attacks than they were strictly comfortable with. Soon they were well up into the level three range of power, though they still had one major weakness, none of them could think or react as fast as the monster.
It had been focusing on Val and had developed an understanding of her fighting style. Picking its moment it waited until Val dodged aside, attacking the opposite way, two arms latching on to her gauntlet. With a wail of triumph it hauled her towards its mouth.
Gavin watched the monster grasp his team mate, rushing forward he teleported to intercept its bite attack, he lashed out with a double kick. He collided with Val, tearing bloody strips out of her arm as he tore her free of its grip.
The demon bit down on where its prey had been, pleasantly surprised to find a new victim in its jaws. It sank its teeth in deep, grinding flesh and bone to pulp in an instant. Then its victim was gone, teleported out of its reach. It felt several magic items detonate inside its gut, as it swallowed what remained of the severed limb.
Gavin yowled with the pain wracking his body. His arm had torn off at the shoulder, his armour rent apart, revealing a row of exposed ribs down his side. He felt Sam press her healing magic into him to seal the wound as well as Vals divine aura flooding him with healing magic. He was left with an ugly scabby mess across half of his body. He fought to maintain consciousness as he crashed into the murky water, the wound erupting in a fresh wave of nausea.
With an effort he struggled back into the air as the monster bounded on all six limbs towards him. He threw himself violently out of its reach, gasping as his wound reopened with the force of his movement.
Tumbling to a halt the monster refocused on Val, bounding towards her in a leap that cleared the distance in a single powerful stride. Val dodged and hacked at the beast, Sam following it up with a flurry of her own attacks. They found their swords barely able to graze it, it seemed to have become almost impervious to attacks once again.
Gavin regained control of his flight, his body of iron steeling him against the worst of the pain. He focused on his hexahedrons, pulling them into tight orbits around himself, slingshotting them out to smash into the monster. He resummoned his rifle in his left hand and attempted to rack a new bullet, spinning the gun around one hand like he was Arnie. He failed, dropping the rifle. Swearing, he resummoned it and tried again.
There came a deep groaning from all around the cavern. The walls vibrated and gave way. Great chunks of stone shattered into shrapnel as a tsunami of undead poured from every direction. They flowed as a single mass clawing over each other to get to their prey.
‘Time for the Tzaar Bomba.’ Gavin said through chat.
‘Right.’ Sam agreed, ‘NOW!’
Sam unleashed her radiance of the dawn power as well as her full suite of attacks, triggering her execute power in combination with the stack of enhanced strength she'd accumulated. She felt Gavin flood her with mana, and health, restoring her cooldowns and resources.
Radiance of the dawn triggered then had a short duration before the effect ended. Refreshing the cooldown allowed her to use it multiple times in short succession, amplifying the effect and increasing the subsequent cooldown. She was able to operate comfortably within her radiant light, while her enemies were blinded, allowing her to repeatedly hammer the monster with her execute power, feeling it refresh again and again as Gavin converted the teams accumulated wealth and his stored resource stockpile into her attacks.
She felt herself fraying at the edges, the sheer amount of raw energy coursing through her so quickly was not what her body was designed to cope with. She was quickly beginning to feel how Gavin looked after his nascent crafting sessions.
Her arms ached as she pummelled the monster, feeding everything she had into it. Her escalating enhancement ability had magnified her damage up to dangerous levels. She felt her power from pain ability activate, her attributes increasing because of the damage she was dealing to herself as she stretched her body beyond her limits, this only increased the rate of damage.
Something had to give. Sam set herself a mental threshold for the damage she was willing to do to herself, then pushed beyond it as the demon weathered the assault. It stumbled and flailed ineffectually, unable to sense anything other than pain tearing at it from all directions.
‘Enough Sam.’ Gavin called through chat as he eased off the transfer of resources through to his companion.
Sam made one last attack, screaming in fury as she slammed her sword down with all her strength, feeling the blade snap in two as it connected with the monster.
A concussive wave blasted everyone clear of the fight, Sam tumbled backwards, crumpling against the wall beside the elevator. Gavin and Judy flew up at an angle, able to arrest their movement with their force of will power. Val, who'd been unaffected by the blinding light and similarly unleashing her power into the monster, tumbled head over heels into the pile of shredded corpses against the far wall.
Judy was first to come to shake off the effects of Sam's onslaught, spotting the dazed monster, charred and bleeding in the pile of corpses twenty yards away from Val. She lit it up, her prestidigitation ability bathing it in glowing white light for all to see, then continued her deadly onslaught. The thing was heavily wounded but not out of the fight, she suspected all she was offsetting it's natural healing ability.
Gavin flew down to the monster. He'd resummoned his armour and was clumsily using his force of will ability to animate the empty arm, slowly loading his rifle and shooting point blank at it. With an effort, he fabricated a tomb for the monster, an etherium iron maiden slammed shut around it. Gavin knelt to begin the enchanting process as Val stumbled into the fight, skewering the beast with her four swords into four perfectly sized slots in the contraption.
The enchantment took hold, draining mana from the monster, converting and feeding it back as entropic damage. The monster screamed within its prison, muffled with the layer of thick metal surrounding it. Gavin encased the whole thing in another layer of adamantium, then another of rock, not wanting to risk another situation like the ghoul eruption earlier.
Falling back, exhausted, he sent a message to Sam ‘you okay?’
‘I'll live.’ she grunted, still slumped up against the wall, ‘just leave me here for a bit to recover.’
Judy began the looting process, moving between the mountain of ghoul corpses, touching each in turn with a foot. She was soon joined by Gavin who made his way around the opposite side, slowly carving a hole in the number of bodies.
When they were nearly done they felt the pocket dimension crack. The boss monster was dead and its lair was collapsing. Gavin deconstructed the tomb he'd made around it and looted its corpse.
“Everyone ready to go?”
“Yeah” Val said, lifting Sam up over a shoulder.
They opened a portal back to the entrance and waited till the last moment, as Judy drew as much of the space into herself as she could manage, feeling the available space in her inventory swell by almost half.
Half an hour later Gavin sauntered back into the guild hall in Nyümbakka, taking a seat with a sigh on the bench opposite Haylee’s desk.
“You wouldn't have a good healer on hand?”
“Gods, what happened to you?” She could see the ruined stump and exposed bone peaking through the side of his singlet
“Killed this abyssal demon thing, it was a bit bitier than I would've liked, it was pretty tough too.” Gavin shrugged with one shoulder.
“I can have a healer portalled out here the day after tomorrow to restore your arm.”
“All good mate, cheers. I was wondering if you wouldn't mind having a debrief in person? Kinda lost my writing hand.”
“You're rank two? Your dexterity and intellect should be high enough to write with your non dominant hand. It's one of the perks of having greater control over your body.”
“No shit? Well, in that case, I'll give it a go.” he stood to take a contract completion form and began filling it out.
“There is another matter I want to discuss while you're here, we didn't finish our talk last time regarding your intervention with the Nalan warriors.”
“Oh? The guild has decided what to do about that?”
“Yes. Word has come from above me the guild absolutely and categorically wants you and your team nowhere near anything political. There's not a note in your files, prohibiting it, but promoting you above the second rank is not going to happen, especially while you're out here.”
“Well, that hurts more than I thought it would.” Gavin said, smiling wryly as he scratched the edges of his injury. “I can't say I'm surprised, but I feel we do good work.”
“Off the record, there's something going on within the guild. There’s always infighting and political jostling, but it feels to me like your team is being used as some piece in a game. If you want a promotion within the guild you'll likely need to move well away from here or ingratiate yourself with the management of a guild outpost.
“Ehh, it is what it is. I'm not going to play games, I'm here to do a job and get strong, I'm not super concerned with doing more than that.” Gavin said, knowing full well that was a half truth at best.
