Chapter 8 - Team Building (Patreon)

"I've got a bad feeling about this." I grumbled.

"What do you mean? That went off without a hitch."

"Exactly, Darya. That's the issue. All it takes now is somebody saying 'this was too easy.' or 'there's no way this can go wrong." and BAM - jinx city." 

The gorgeous half-orc laughed at my completely logical chain of thought. She was right though. The first encounter had gone off swimmingly. Arack acted like a forward scout with Darya trailing and we'd found the large animals nibbling on fresh shoots. Circling, Darya was able to confirm that they'd indeed made a bedding spot nearby. From the looks of it, it had been a while already - sealing their fate.We made it into position without a hitch. Lyle's new armor truly made for less noise and I was starting to worry I'd be the new sneaking liability of the party.

Soon, a veritable barrage of death sailed forth into the clearing, cutting into the Gareads. Arrows, throwing knives and magic cut down the unsuspecting animals, striking at weak spots before they even realized they were at risk. Struck by several missiles, one heavily wounded male managed to stumble into a trot towards us. He was obviously confused by the clay ball that hit him right between the eyes, but powered on – only to be met by Lyle’s mace, smack in the face.

Now, as we walked, I was sorting the drops we’d found. Garead horns, sinews, tails, fur and – of course – eyes. Whoever at Exogenic decided that every monster should have players handling those squishy orbs deserves punishment. The sensation is… unnerving. Still, we’d managed to hit the jackpot. "Darya? Are we on for dinner? We've got six Garead steaks here and from the looks of it, it's a prime cut."

She laughed. "Let's see what happens. If we don't keep our focus, we might end up like the last time we went adventuring. I'll promise you this - if I'm reborn, I'll be licking my wounds, not seasoning steaks." 

Lyle, walking alongside Darya, said in a low voice, "I never really said sorry. Arcangelo and I messed up back then, in the kobold's temple."

Darya shook her head. "We all failed that day.  Both because we didn't think to keep our eyes open for other enemies and because we didn't think. The door was closed and there were clear signs of people living there.Of course that damn animal wasn't alone. Let's just all agree to learn from it and think things through next time."

Lyle nodded, his face composed. 

Darya halted, her vision far away for a moment. "Speaking of next time - we're just about there." 

"Heh. I can tell. Atlas' excitement is pouring through the bond." The chameleon was playing forward scout this time, some hundred meters ahead of us. At this range, I couldn't piggyback directly on his senses, but his sensations and emotions still poured through the bond, albeit weakly. Right now, it was a mixture of enjoyment, focus and the thrill of the hunt. "Any words of wisdom from Sourp... sorry, Benneth on the nature of these... Gyrespit? What kind of name is that?" Arack and Lyle walked alongside us, focusing on Darya. We kept moving while we talked, but quiet now.

"A fitting name, from what Benneth told me. They're small lizards with a poison quill spitting ability that works at range - hence the 'spit' part of it."

"And 'gyre?' Where does that fit into it? Do they, like, change their own tails?" Arack asked with a giggle.

"If only. No, they're pack animals - and then some. You know how pack animals like wolves work in concert? Some distract you from the front while others pounce from behind? They've taken that to a new level. If what he said is true, they can fire in barrages, stagger their attacks and time their approach to maximum effect."

"That sounds... disturbing. Some kind of hive mind?" I asked, frowning.

Darya shrugged. "Could be. Good news is that it takes a while for them to activate their contact. If you surprise them, they'll just be regular, small lizards for a while. With our group, we should be able to take them out just like that in one overwhelming attack." Everybody nodded as we walked and she continued. "How about Atlas and I range forward until we find them and then plan the approach?"

"Sounds like a plan... crap. Wait." The emotions ranging through the bond peaked in a wave of excitement and blood lust. "Feels like Atlas decided to save us the energy." I sent him a message to come. "He'll be here any minute and... oh no." My heart sank as I felt Atlas' excitement be replaced by first worry and then surprise and... fear? "They've seen him. Damn. Lyle in front, the rest of you spread out. They'll be ready for us."

Lyle didn't hesitate. He drew his mace and ran onwards, ducking an overhanging branch and crashing through the bushes. His yell reverberated through the forest. As I hefted my violin, I shared a quick glance at the others. Arack had circled to my left and Darya to my right and we ran forward, more cautiously. I pushed my way through a bush whose thorny branches felt like they were trying to trap me and broke through into a large clearing. 

Before me was a scene of chaos. Atlas was running for his life, camouflage turning on and off in a kaleidoscopic mess while Lyle was pushing forward, ducked behind his large shield. Before him was a group of a dozen... facehuggers. It sounds off, but it was the only animal I could really compare them with.  They looked like they were covered in a hard shell of sorts and where facehuggers had tentacles, these things had eight tiny pincer-like legs. The ugly insectile creatures were small, unnaturally agile and, at the moment, they were completely focused on Lyle, taking turns to pellet him with nasty, fast-flung projectiles. Lyle's already muscular form was glowing slightly and seemed more solid than usual - it would seem his latest buff had kicked in. Except, that one only activated when Lyle was facing exceptional odds. Damn.

I was forced to shut Atlas' emotions out as his reflected fear and pain threatened to overwhelm me. Before cutting the connection, I repeated my earlier cry for him to come, both mentally and out loud. With a thought, I activated Veil of Sound and moved into the clearing. My first Sonic Missile went wide. The group of monsters were circling, gyrating with a mesmerizing fluidity and movements that made it hard to predict where they would move to. Suddenly, three of the creatures broke away from the group and started to focus their attention on me. 

Right away, my Veil of Sound was put to a stress test. The three creatures managed to submit me to a constant bombardment of poisonous quills. Dodging them was no easy task either, as they switched targets constantly. One projectile would move straight at my body, followed by two aimed at eyes and feet, respectively. I opted to keep moving and trust in my spell. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched one Gyrespit impaled by an arrow as Darya joined the battle. It did not get back up - but three others instantly parted to attack the half-orc. "At least they don't have too many hit points," I thought to myself as a near miss whizzed by my ear. There was no way I'd be able to keep up this dance forever, so I decided to go on the offensive. A stun blast expanded towards the trio and managed to snag two of them. Moving closer, I followed up with a Sonic Wave and a Sonic Missile, angling to get in close so I could finish the trio with a Sonic Flamethrower - or Stream of Songs as they'd somehow decided to name it. The results weren't too shabby. My Veil kept me protected and the magical one-two combination was enough to end one of the ugly animals.  

So maybe I hadn't though this all the way through. To the detriment of my well-being, I learned that day, that if you prove to a hive mind that you're a threat, it simply means that you paint one giant target on your own back. Within seconds, I had every single Gyrespit doing their utmost to turn me into a giant, poisoned pincushion. 

Ages ago - well, more like four weeks earlier - but what felt like ages ago, I'd asked myself how well the (Veil of Sound) would hold up under an attack of numerous rapid attacks. The short answer? It didn't. The world seemed to move in slow motion, as every single facehugger wannabe turned towards me and started spitting poisoned death at my rapidly retreating back. Well, I use the word 'back', but that's not correct. Even in my semi-panicked state, I knew that exposing my back, where the Veil of Sound didn't cover fully, would be a life-threatening decision. Hence, I scrambled diagonally away, dodging and weaving as best I could. My best wasn't good enough, however. I could probably thank the Apprentice level of Unarmored Dodge for avoiding most direct hits - but even so, I was soon stung on leg, shoulder and stomach in short succession. There was no fighting back here, however, even as I felt the poison kicking in. My entire concentration was dedicated to avoiding their shots and making it closer to the tree line. 

I was stung twice more, but as suddenly as the onslaught had begun, it ended. I ran on, but turned my head - and stopped, as I could see the situation had altered drastically. My friends had taken advantage of the Gyrespit focusing on me and bodies lay scattered across the clearing, studded with daggers and arrows. Even as I watched, an arrow thudded into a monster, leaving a fifth corpse to drop on the forest floor. I was not the only one to look the worse for wear, however. Darya, unarmored as she was, had clearly been tagged several times. was still keeping her distance. She was limping and in obvious pain, but her lips were drawn in a hard line as she released arrow after arrow after the monsters. Lyle, however, had definitely not been enjoying the ordeal. His new armor had stood up to the test, and there was not a single pinprick to be found on his body or arms. Instead, the agile creatures had been targeting every part of him that wasn't covered. He was bleeding freely from his legs and neck and was obviously struggling to stay afoot. Even as I watched, three of the remaining Gyrespit were branching out to surround him. It looked like he was figuring out that he was fighting a losing battle, however, because he was pulling back towards the tree line. I wasn't feeling too good about him making it there without help, however.

A glance at the debuffs and my health showed that I wasn't going to kick it right away - five minutes from now might be a problem, but there was no imminent danger of death. With a curse at the Gyrespit, I braced myself to charge back into the fray. I raised the bow to the strings, prepared to face another round of quills coming my way, until the world paused. A shrill cry reverberated through the clearing and I turned to see Arack charge straight at the remaining group of Gyrespit with an ululating battle cry. "Arack, no!" I cried. With her sorry endurance, she'd be bleeding out in seconds. 

She ignored me, however, launching straight at the group with abandon. Even as they noticed her arrival, she let fly - a clay ball flew through the air, followed by two throwing daggers launched at separate targets. Several things happened in short succession then. The clay ball landed, exploding outwards to include four of the remaining animals - it looked like she was done with the fakes for now. As the daggers thunked into each of their targets, they all responded with proper hostility, focusing their full attention on the tiny kobold. Figuring out the workings of a hive mind isn't the easiest thing in the world - but this one made sense, even to me. Finish off the weakling quickly, then return the attention to the rest of the group. They started leaping about, circling around each other in complicated patterns, while they spat death and poison at Arack. I did the only thing I could come up with and started pouring damage into the group. If nothing else, I wanted to minimize the casualties. A Sonic Wave launched into the group, followed by a Sonic Missile and a Sonic Push to throw one of the bastards off balance - just for good measure. Then, with a second to wait for the cooldowns, I glanced in trepidation at Arack, to see how she was doing. 

She was dancing, That was the only suitable word I could come up with. She was dancing with death and she was winning. A simple turn evolved into an effortless swan dive, where she somehow conserved enough momentum during the roll to twist and leap straight into a sprint going the opposite direction. As my jaw hit the floor, I remembered myself and focused on dealing damage to the critters. Where I had been forgetting myself, however, the rest of the group took up the slack. One Gyrespit had succumbed to my Sonic Wave and another died from an arrow - and it seemed even Atlas was back in the fray, as a wad of something shot out from the side, causing an animal to fall to the ground, stunned. 

One additional round of damage spells and then I eyed my chance and sprinted forward.  Two more Gyrespit had died in the onslaught  and I gave it my all, arms pumping with the effort. The moment I believed I was in range, a Stun Blast slammed into existence.  In this instance, I timed it perfectly and three of the remaining five animals fell to the ground, stunned. Atlas' target was still down and out and in the heat of the moment I decided to try something unconventional. The notes of The Pied Piper seemed awfully out of place amidst the current scene of carnage but it did the trick. At the same time that my Veil fended off a shot from the remaining Gyrespit, my Entrance Animals hit home and the beast halted its attack. As I locked eyes with the ugly creature, I resisted the temptation to wipe sweat off my brow. Even though I'd managed to entrance one of them, the real challenge was yet to come. True enough, within seconds, the burden on my concentration increased fourfold as the three others arose from the stun. I groaned and closed my eyes, removing any distraction as my fingers slipped wearily through the often-played tones. I could feel the weight threaten to overburden me already - and I was painfully aware that the final Gyrespit was due to shake itself from Atlas' stun any second now. Just when I was about to lose the battle, the pressure eased up a little - and then even further. Opening my eyes, I watched in amazement, as Lyle waded through the remaining beasts, mace rising and falling with abandonment as he finally managed to close with his elusive targets.

From there on out, it was pure clean-up duty. Not ten seconds had gone by when I was able to put down my violin with a sigh. From the looks of it, my health would remain in the green, so I quickly moved up to Lyle. "What's the damage? Are you hanging in there, Lyle?"

He dropped to both knees, panting. "I'm... not sure. I don't feel too good. They managed to hit me a couple of times and... dunno. It doesn't hurt much, but it aches. Know what I mean?" His face was pallid and his eyes looked sunken. From the looks of it, the poison was doing a number on him. 

Rapid footsteps from behind announced the arrival of Darya. "Here. Chew this." She proffered a handful of spotted leaves at Lyle. He did as ordered without complaint.  

Right away, his complexion improved even as his face contracted in distaste. He asked around the mouthful, "what iff.."

Darya brushed him off. "Stop talking. Start chewing. In fact, if you can talk, there's room for more." She pushed another handful at him and he gracelessly accepted."

"Will he be okay?" Arack asked from the side. She walked up, completely unharmed, with a worried expression.

Darya nodded. "Should be. Benneth has had me crafting my own emergency pack. This should nullify most mild poisons."

Relieved, I let myself plop down on the ground, blood and dirt be damned. "Wow. That was too close." Nobody responded, but there were nods all around. Atlas came walking out into the clearing and I accessed the bond again. What came flowing towards me can only be described as embarrassment. I sent assurance, comfort and unconditional love back at him. "It's not your fault, Atlas. If they were able to detect you, they would have noticed any of us." The sense of remorse lessened slightly. Instead I received a mental message - loud and clear: "Come." Intrigued, I got up and followed the large lizard as he shuffled across the clearing towards the tree line. He stopped right before entering into the forest proper. Leaves, branches and stones lay scattered all over the place, but I saw nothing to draw the attention. "What am I looking at here?" I told him, with a questioning tone. 

With great care, he opened his mouth and lifted one end of a branch to place it on a rock - and then stepped on the center of the branch with a loud crack. 

"Oh." I was flabbergasted, as I had to do some mental reevaluation of how clever Atlas really was. Not only was he - apparently - able to learn how to talk, he was also capable of understanding his own errors and feeling remorse. "Atlas," I said, keeping my tone of voice earnest and my feelings centered on reassurance, "You are doing great. Learn from your mistakes and improve. We'll reach great heights, you and me." I knelt beside him and started scratching his neck. "Besides, I've got no clue if you're getting any of this or I'm just talking to myself here. Might as well join the others - and scratch you a little more. C'mon."

We rejoined the others. Lyle was looking a lot better already. Even though his hit points were still low, he'd regained his color and composure. He was busy rinsing his mouth with water. Darya was busy reclaiming her arrows and Arack looked like she was still hopped up on adrenaline. She was all over the place, fingers tapping her side and moving fitfully. I took a round, collecting materials from the downed Gyrespit before rejoining the others. I coughed and said out loud. "Sooo - sitrep?"

Darya nodded and sat down. The others stared and Lyle burst out, "what?"

"Sitrep. It means..." My voice trailed out as I realized I had no clue what it stood for, nor how to explain it. "Lil' help here, Darya?"

With a muffled laugh, she came to the rescue, "Sitrep. It means situation report - typical boy thing to make up fancy words about us talking about the battle and our status."

"Yes. That. Let's see how everybody's doing and see if there's anything to learn from the battle."

Arack jumped into it immediately. "Can I start? Because I've just figured out one very, very important thing."

"I don't see why not."

"Thing is - I've realized that I'm amazing. Awe-inspiring. I'll, like, have to insist that you call me the Whirlwind Warrior from now on."

I burst out in laughter along with the rest. "Ooookay there, warrior. Good start. I'll have to agree on the amazing part - anything else you'd like to add?"

She nodded, emphatically. "Yeah, sending in a knight in heavy armor against somebody who's almost as good as evading as I am? That's dumb. We should stop doing that."

We all agreed on that - Lyle most of all. He added, "yeah - no discussion here. Maybe I should've just pulled back and let you all take potshots from behind the trees or something?"

"Hrm. Might work," Darya said. "Might also allow them to focus on us one at a time and wear us down. Hard to tell. Best approach with a group like this would still be doing what we planned, only without the mess." She walked over to Atlas and started caressing him. "No hard feelings though, baby. Who's a wonderful chameleon? You are."

I rolled my eyes. "Babytalk aside - All in all, I'd say we salvaged it pretty well. Wonderful accuracy from the two of you, Arack and Darya. And Lyle, don't beat yourself up. You did a fine job at presenting a nice, fat target so the rest of us could do some damage. We'll just need to get you some better armor for the legs and face. I only have one addition - Arack - please don't do this again. I know you're incredibly agile, but one miss and they'd have skewered you. I can tell you this much: I'm not going to go back to Videk and Darek to tell them that their princess died because I failed to teach you the meaning of caution. Yes, if I'd moved in to take the brunt of the attack, I might have died - but I'd be Reborn, only slightly the worse for wear. Can you say the same for yourself?"

She folded her arms over her chest, "but they weren't even close to hitting me."

"I don't care. If you risk yourself needlessly from now on, I will stop bringing you into battle. Lyle, and you could've made it out without troubles and Darya could've helped with the poison." 

"That's a load of crap. You didn't even know that Darya could help with the poison beforehand."

I pointed at her to berate her further... and then let my hand drop."Heh. Good point. That one's on all of us, however, for not talking about that when we knew they were poisonous. Regardless, my point stands. I'd love to have you as part of the group - but only if you intend to show me that you're in it for the long haul."

Her mumbled response could charitably be interpreted as an "alright" so I let the topic lie for now. I clapped my hands together and asked out loud, "so how is everybody? Any lingering injuries or damages - or do we go for the full trio?"

Everybody insisted that they were ready to go. Darya raised an eyebrow at Lyle and he elaborated, "well, I'm not good, but by the time we arrive, any lingering poison should be over and done with."

"Good enough - and glad to hear it. There's nothing wrong with coming back tomorrow, but I'll have to admit I'd like to end the day with a clear victory. Which leads us to...you, Darya? What're we going to be up against?"

She grimaced. "Let's get going. We'll talk on the way." She stretched and cracked her neck. "We're a couple of hours out and I'd like to get there while it's still light."

We packed up. This time around, we wasted little time cleaning up after ourselves. Nature would soon take care of it. As we were about to (find på en eller anden extra lille ting de finder) We all took turns lauding Atlas' attention and satisfaction was pouring from him, as we left.

The trip was going to be cross-country all the way. As Darya said, "Or we could go to the caravan route, follow it for a while and then go back towards our target. Would be faster. Except, we're not. We'll start working on an emergency pack for each of you. Not debating this either. You all need it."

Nobody dared tell her no. With the battle fresh in our minds, it was easy to see how we needed some basic emergency items.

"About our target though. Lyle and Arcangelo, you both know the place -  it's the kobold village where we found Othell the first time." To Arack, she added, "that's the demonologist who was responsible for attacking the caravans all these years."

Arack goggled. "A demonologist? That's pretty bad news, isn't it?"

"Yeah. That's also the reason we need to go back there. You see, in all the commotion his defeat caused, nobody thought about Othell pursuing his demonic experiments down in the ruins of the temple." She took a deep breath. "I'm no expert here and Benneth was already repeating what Mallard had told him, so I might not be saying it right. The way I understood it though - if you leave something like an experiment or a summoning or magic circle left untended, it can cause issues. Bad issues. The circle is permanent until it's canceled, except you will need to impose your will and magical direction on it from time to time. Otherwise the magic... wears away at the instructions or something." 

Arack perked her head. "Wouldn't that just, like, cause the summoning to disappear?"

She nodded. "That's what I thought. Except it'd seem the magic itself maintains the circle or summoning. Only... well, the purpose of the circle kinda erodes with time and what's left is just the magic itself that sort of seeps through."

I nodded, thinking aloud, "makes sense, sort of. Greck once explained magic to me as a huge sea and each kind of magic was just a way of dipping your cup into the sea. Well, if you open a hole into the sea, the magic's bound to wipe away any original intentions in time. Well, I might be talking out my behind right now, but it's logical to me." I scratched my neck. "Not sure what the result would be though. Dark magic infusing the walls of the temple?"

Lyle added in a gravelly voice, "or the destruction of the Kingdom of Selrahc." We all turned towards him and he continued, "it's part of one of my books. The king of Selrahc, King Naed, had turned to necromancy without anybody's knowledge. After decades, when he was finally found out, he fled the country. He fought every bit of the way, however, using the amassed legions of dead from his country - and the intentional decay of magical rituals fed with necromantic power. To date, the kingdom is still a lifeless ruin and there are harsh penalties on anybody who leaves an active circle or ritual, especially on purpose." He walked a bit further before he realized that the rest of us were just standing there, staring at him. He stammered, "I - I mean, not that that's what I think is-" He forcibly gathered himself before continuing, "that was the work of tons of circles, intentionally planted to be used as magical warfare. I was just trying to say this is serious."

A nervous snort escaped me, "well, you had me fooled for a second there. Thanks for the lesson though - it's good to know that it's nothing to joke around with. How do we know Othell left something behind, though?" 

Darya nodded in approval, "I was just about to get to that." Darya grimaced. "Benneth said he scouted the place to see if he could handle it by himself and he'd spotted a dark-infested animal near the entrance. That's all I know, however."

"Damn. So that's what it does. That (dark-infested) wolverine of Othell's was a pain. Which animal are we talking here."

From the look on Darya's face, just talking about it hurt her. "A... maggot."

Arack jumped in, "I don't get it. So what? We smoosh them and disable the summoning thing. Most maggots are pretty good eating, by the way."

"Ew. Yeah, I'm never trusting you with cooking," Lyle said.

Darya swallowed. "Crushing them is less easy when they're ancle-height."

Silence reigned, as we tried to picture a group of super-sized maggots. I snapped my fingers. "Farts. This is going to be nasty. I get it, though. They did have that nasty pile of corpses right next to the summoning circle. Nasty magic spills from experiment, endangers world by creating nastier, gigantic larvae. Sucks to be us."

Our talented half-orc was true to her word. As we walked, she started pointing out interesting plants and berries and once in a while we stopped to harvest some items for our own emergency kit. Arack was as lively as ever, asking questions every other second until even Darya was left unable to respond. 

"That's... I'm not sure why that combination works, really. It just does. You'd have to ask Benneth - or maybe (elf) - she knows just about anything about plants and animals. Greck would too, I guess, only it's hard to find him sober - or just drunk enough."

For myself, I managed to pilfer a handful of [Gentleberries] that apparently increased the mana regeneration rate slightly and some [Durghen root.] Crushed and applied as a powder, it would be able to stop bleeding, albeit in a painful manner. Arack was less hesitant. Her pockets and bags bulged where she'd stuffed them with every single thing Darya thought might be used for alchemical concoctions. Lyle listened attentively to every word out of Darya's mouth and ended up with a good bunch of items as well. Maybe his close brushes with death had taught him something? Heh. Sure.

On the walk, I managed to get a good overview of the items from our recent battles too. Exogenics hadn't been stingy with the items and I looked forward to getting busy crafting. Each of the dozen beasts had dropped a piece of [Gyrespit carapace.] Lyle insisted on claiming those. He believed they might be used to craft armor similar to the Viper scales. For myself, I'd claimed 19 [Gyrespit legs]  and 12 [Gyrespit tooth] of common rarity as well as a double handful of other, nastier body parts of uncommon quality. Vertebrae, eyes and, yup, [Gyrespit intestines.] Somebody really needed to get over that fetish, post-haste. Darya had laid claim to the largest pile of items though. She'd had us crawl all over the clearing to gather all the remaining [Gyrespit quill.] She believed she'd be able to repurpose them into arrows and perhaps retain the poison effect. 

Two and a half hours, two skill-ups to Lore - Dawnlight Forest and one to Crafting Lore later, we stood gathered at the far end of the decrepit kobold village, staring in dismay. 

Lyle was the first one to speak. "Braille help me, I thought the place was a dump before. Can we go dish out some punishment already, Arcangelo?"

"Spoken like a true paladin - very nice." Even playing at a devil-may-care attitude, I couldn't tear my eyes away from the sight before me. About ten [Dark-infested Maggots] were wriggling through the village, leaving a slimy, black trail behind them wherever they moved. From the looks of it, the slime slowly destroyed whatever it touched, be it plants, wood or grass. "Gillem's going to kill me when I bring back my clothes to him for cleaning. Ah well, at least I can claim truthfully that it was for a good cause." I faced the others. "We're probably going to find more maggots, the farther we go - and unless my guess is wrong, they're going to be even larger. So this is essentially practice for what we're about to enter. At least they're slow. I say we pull one or two, take turns seeing how much damage we can do to them."

"Pull?" I was never going to stop being entertained by Lyle's face when he was perplexed. Even when it made sense that he didn’t know the lingo.

"Yeah, attack one of them and attract their ire." Darya stood, rolled her shoulders and did a test pull on her bow string. The movement did wonderful things to her posture. "I'll go first - see what I can do." She looked at me with a stern gaze, "and you, stop drooling and focus."

I grinned at her, not at all remorseful. " Yes, ma'am.”

All business now, she let her gaze include the rest of our motley crew. “Now. Those maggots look pretty disgusting and, above all, slow. No obvious weak spots – our best bet’s probably to aim for the head. See the dark spots around their mouths? Probably armor like on that damn wolverine. Aim around it if you can.” She pointed back behind us. ”The first good while, we’ll have a free path at our backs. We’ll be falling back while fighting unless they’re weaker or slower than it looks.”

I jumped in, “that means no heroic last stands from you, Lyle. You hear?” His blush and averted glance was response enough. I grinned at him and continued, “alright, I’ll lay off. I’ve only got one thing to add. We have no idea how the dark magic has altered those nauseating things – armor’s the only thing we know for sure. Stay alert, keep a distance where you can and look out for each other.”

A series of nods and Darya spoke over the silence. “Any last words?” Then, with a feral grin, she raised the bow, aimed at the nearest maggot and let loose.

I’ve had a couple of nasty experiences during my time inside World of Chains. Some of them were of the type to burn images into the retina as a mental keepsake for later. Being beaten to death by fists, claws and teeth – that was one. Being charged by a giant-sized viper another. Tortured by… alright, enough of that list. Regardless, after this day, I’d be able to add another image to the list. The look of eight huge, bloated maggots keening and bearing down on us in a slithering, writhing mess hit some primordial terror I didn’t even know I had inside. And the sounds… you wouldn’t think that a maggot moving would create any sort of sound, but they did. Words like ‘putrid’ and ‘moist’ came to mind – something reminiscent to the sound of a steak sizzling on a pan.

Whatever. I’m just trying to come up with a decent excuse for missing my first Sonic Missile entirely. Hell, it wasn’t anywhere near the target. Darya’s was spot-on, however. She timed it with the opening of the maggot’s mouth and it disappeared into the belly of the beast, removing over half its health. Two daggers followed, sinking into the open mouth and leaving it with only a sliver of health. Darya's next arrow sank into the outer ridges of it's mouth, but the damage was still enough to have the large beast sink to the ground.

Not one to be outdone, I shook myself and fired off a Sonic Wave. Even before the wave had torn its way through the ranks of approaching monsters, I braced myself and let a Stream of Songs fly. The dark waves of magic poured from me in a gleeful explosion of carnage, as if it had been waiting to be released. The attacking beasts cared not the least. In their defense, they probably only had been bestowed a handful of brain cells between the lot. Keening, they charged on and ground themselves to death against the magic that streamed from me. 

As the fifth monster dropped lifeless to the ground, I released the stream and stumbled back, slightly out of breath from the exertion. My mana was down to just below 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 trio slid to the ground, stunned. A second, smaller missile launched from a nearby tree to connect with one of the remaining maggots. Where it hit one of the dark patches, the missile bounced off to connect with the ground. Confused, the maggot turned  a full circle around itself before, 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. Opening the mouth wide, the ugly beast revealed a huge set of hooked teeth the width of the young knight. Lyle kept his cool, however and met it mid-attack with a full-power (synonym) Shield Bash. He then proceeded to pound the stuffing out of it while the girls submitted the downed creatures to a lethal bombardment of arrows, daggers and clay containers.

The splotchy-skinned monsters went down and they went down fast. The foremost two died even before the stuns wore off, Lyle yelling out in triumph as the foremost ringed segment of his opponent tore and collapsed from his mace blow. Even as one of the others struggled to rise, I saw three arrows stab into its frontal parts with amazing precision, one after the other. One was diverted from the monster’s teeth but the two others 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. Kill the one on the right only.” Leading the way, I started running backwards while sending a Sonic Missile at the rightmost maggot. The others were quick to follow, and soon the beleaguered animal succumbed to the attacks. 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 blonde (tjek) 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 word in this context. As the direct attacks failed, the maggot changed tack, working more to coil itself around Lyle, or raising itself up high to let itself plummet 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 watched 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 his panic or flailing, emotional attacks, there was a certain economy to his movements now. Move in close to the maggot as it lay fully extended, limit 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 leave the spot for Arack, when something unexpected happened.

The mostly unharmed maggot was recovering from tumbling end over end where Lyle had pushed 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 well-known ‘You have died’ message to appear. When it didn’t happen, I peeked up and then swiftly over to where Lyle had been standing. He wasn’t standing anymore, though. He was lying flat on his back, looking dazed. Several meters to the side and behind him, his shield lay, 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 with 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 from 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 tooth] of uncommon quality. I had the feeling those might be used for something more than just Tinkering. 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, with my attention constantly drifting towards 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 believe 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 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 them 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 that."

"I could. Somewhat." Darya frowned. "It took my armor piercing skill though. Better to just aim for the mouth instead." She frowned and 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 pupal 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?”