Tusk moved in slow motion at Crystal’s side. The gnark had a moment where her eyes went slowly wide, then she sped up to match me.
“Human, I help,” she squawked right as the spider lunged for me.
I brought up the sword in time to parry the first flurry of blows. It sent me reeling, back hitting the nearest tree, head spinning. It took an effort of will to drag my focus away from the MP bar and fully onto my opponent. Down to three quarters and the spider came for me in jerky, stop-motion movements. It was letting out an electric whine, like a coil running way over its limit. Steam billowed out from between its joints.
“Need a distraction,” I called out.
Another lighting-fast flurry of blows but I had the shield up just in time. I felt the hard rain on the metal as I ducked my head behind it, then heard the spider’s sound growing louder.
A wooden whack sounded and the assault ebbed. Crystal let out a scream worthy of a warrior princess.
The spider turned and lunged for the gnark. I reacted faster than I thought myself capable of. I seized the brief moment the monster had its back turned to me and slashed at its hind segment. It moved out of the way, I missed the body blow but clipped one of its hind legs. The blade made a clanking sound and almost bounced off. It slid across the smooth metal cylinder and the edge got stuck in the joint. I leaned all my weight on it and heard a satisfying rending sound. Then the sword went through and was free.
A metallic, blade-tipped leg squirmed on the ground. The spider didn’t even notice. It slashed at Crystal while she, in turn, rained whacks against its thick carapace. For a moment, I thought the gnark was done for, but she handled herself surprisingly well, dodging and weaving aside from the assault.
I tried to hit it again but it moved out of the way, faster than anything should move with a leg missing. Steam made a corona around it, escaping now out of every joint, thicker by the moment. It reared up and opening up its mouth unnaturally wide, like a snake getting ready to lunge. All the blades inside it squirmed like industrial saws.
“Fuck!” I dove out of the way as the spider launched at me.
In one instant it was showing off, the next it flew through the air straight for my face. Luck had it going slightly sideways due to its missing leg. It landed badly, toppling and spinning.
Crystal scurried after it with her staff raised over her head.
A glance at my MP revealed I was on the last seconds of the surge. With a roar for courage, I did the same thing the spider had done: I leapt at it, sword raised over my head, shield protecting my face. The spider rolled on the ground, piston legs propelling it in a wild spin towards its own webs. My slash missed it by a hair.
The surge deactivated and I stumbled forward, forcing myself not to give into the sudden exhaustion. I could feel echoes of [SURE STEP] working in the back of my mind, keeping my feet under me, one lumbering step in front of the other.
The spider rolled right into a tree. Silver leaves rained down. Webs cracked and tinkled in a glittering snowfall. Crystal reached it and rained blow after blow on its lamp eyes.
I had a breath at best, seeing the black, vibrating body through an ever thickening mist. The noise had gone from electric whine to kettle whistle and the spider was already up on its belly, legs tucked beneath it. It ignored Crystal and got ready to pounce again.
There was no chance to think or to plan. I slammed the sword down atop its head as hard as I could. The whirring mechanism inside its mouth suddenly clamped shut with a screech. The saws vibrated against my cloudsteel for an instant, then sprung apart in an explosion that burst open the spider’s whole front section, mouth to middle of the body. I got the shield up just in time to get slammed by the shrapnel.
Crystal had been the faster thinker and took refuge behind me before the explosion.
Yellow ichor geysered up into the air, raining back down with shards of metal as the creature twitched on the ground, halfway eviscerated, legs still trying to dig through the soft earth.
[CONGRATULATIONS]
[YOU HAVE DEFEATED: BLACK TEMPLE SPIDER - ADULT x1]
I spun in place, shield held up, breath coming in shallow, locomotive-like gasps. Given my usual luck, another spider would be right atop me right then.
Nothing else came at us. It was just the one.
Crystal stood by Tusk, patting his head, cooing softly. She was still vibrating slightly, a sign that she was still in an accelerated stated.
“You okay?” I shouted, still not taking my eyes off the corpse in case it decided to get up again.
It took a while for Crystal to calm down and breathe out a slow, long breath. “I fine,” she said, finally. “Too bad spider gone. Good eating on spider.”
The last thing I wanted to think about was food, especially as the glitch artefact bubbled away to a stew of grotesque refuse. The stench, as usual, was unbearable. Even Tusk turned his nose away from it.
We waited for a while, all three of us coiled taut, ready to snap at the first hint of anything moving. Nothing did. The forest remained quiet aside from distant birdsong and the rustle of leaves on the breeze.
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Soon even the smell was gone.
“That’s bloody unpleasant,” I groaned. “I assume we’re getting close if they’re getting this big?”
“Yes, yes,” Crystal said, picking her way through the mechanical remains. Having seen how they sloughed off internal decomposing organs, I really didn’t want to touch any of them. “Harriet’s Heap close. Soon there. More soon. Guards soon.”
I slumped against a tree, letting the weariness take over for a moment as I calmed down after the attack. So far today had been going pretty well. I didn’t get hurt too badly. Yet. The scratches on my stomach weren’t deep enough to be an issue and, anyway, they were already closed up. Aside from the fright, I felt more confident than ever that I could handle myself. Sure, this time Crystal had helped, but I was getting pretty decent at dealing with these sudden ambushes.
Unfortunately, no level yet. Given that constant green reminder attached to my MP bar, I had a momentary surge of indecision. Going to the village as soon as possible made the most sense. But I could also suggest to Crystal we go and explore the area a bit more to try and earn myself that next level.
If I understood everything correctly, I levelled up based on effort expended and on skills gained. My [PARRY] was near its top star, I could feel it. [SURE STEP] also felt like it would go up.
Maybe I could grow a level more if we sought out a bit of trouble?
So I did just that. If the new monsters could keep up with my surge, then I was in deep shit.
“We’re going to find some more of these creatures and kill them,” I said. The webs cracked easily as I slashed at them. Their shattering was almost musical. “I feel I can level. But I need a bit more practice.”
Crystal looked like she was getting ready to disagree, caught momentarily in indecision. Ultimately, she shrugged and scratched Tusk behind the ears.
“Come, come, we help human get big and strong like you, Tusk.” She grinned. “More fight. More treasure for Crystal. Good trade.”
I let out a soft chuckle. It was slow going through the webs. The few that I touched cut straight through skin and got deep into the muscle beneath. They stung like a motherfucker, like paper cuts drenched in lime juice and lemon salt. I got real used to the taste of my blood as I kept sucking whatever bit of my hands got slashed.
“Eternity, remind me to grab the first pair of gloves I come across,” I groaned at the dragon.
Eternity easily landed on various bits of web. They barely even sagged beneath its weight, which was interesting for me. Moment by moment I felt like the dragon was becoming, though I had no idea what exactly.
“Gloves. A belt. Some armour. Some sturdy boots,” Eternity groused. “You should have asked the iepurrans for gear, Klaus.”
“You leave my boots out of this.” I squeezed my toes inside my comfy Deltas. “They’ve been serving me for ten years now. I will part with them when I’m dead.”
“Or when gangrene eats your toes.”
I glared at the dragon then cut the wire it was perched on. It didn’t drop, the smug fuck.
Finding trouble took no time at all. The first was a whole pack of the deviant brain suckers. They made a lot of noise as I deflected their leaps with my shield. A thought struck me after the third one leapt ineffectually at me.
I widened my stance, braced my back and flexed my arm. “Come on, you creepy little shits,” I taunted. Crystal laughed behind me, keeping away as I’d asked her.
There were four headcrabs and three of them writhed on the ground, victims of their own attacks connecting with the shield’s enchantment. The fourth hesitated a moment, then did the same shit the others had. How lucky I was that the deviant versions were so much stupider than the natural ones.
I bet it didn’t see what came next. Or feel it probably. But boy did it feel good to watch the creature sail through the air, legs splayed out, blades aimed for my face. I slammed the shield into it with all my strength.
The headcrab fucking exploded on impact! I don’t know if I was more surprised, or the poor critter who’d just had his ass coming to meet its mouth.
[CONGRATULATIONS]
[YOU HAVE TRAINED A NEW SKILL: SHIELD BASH - INITIATE]
I grinned madly as I baited another of the recovering glitches. The repeat was just as cool as the first time around. By the fourth one I was drenched in stinking hot gore that sloughed off the shield in tiny rivers, but damn did I feel good
Do something repeatable with intent and the system awarded it as a skill. Parrying was easier now that I’d been practising, as was hitting stuff with a powerful blow. I had a feeling that going past the initiate level I would see some really cool shit happening with the skills, though I had no idea where that feeling came from.
“Slow and steady gets me where I’m going.” I huffed and shook off the dissolving gore. “Slow and steady gets me everywhere.”
“Human talk to self. Not healthy,” Crystal needled me as she collected the remains. “Human gone crazy? Need new human?”
“Fuck off.” I grinned as I said it. “Let’s find more of these things.”
We actually didn’t manage to find more. What we did find was a creature so big that I got one good look at it, then turned tail and shuffled away through the underbrush as quickly as I could go. Tusk trembled like a willow in the wind and Crystal had gone greyish pale in the face.
The thing was asleep in a hollow beneath a huge, gnarled tree. I only got to see part of it and the mouth of its warren. It was filled with bones, most of them cracked for the marrow, many just reduced to shards. The animal was the size of a bear, but sleek in build, almost cat-like. The knife-like claws on the ends of its massive paws, and the palm-length fangs that protruded from its mouth were scary enough on their own. What brought it over from “I’d try my luck against it” to “FUCK NO” in all capitals, were the twin horns on its head. One of them was long enough to skewer me from belly button to spine, come out the other side, and still have room for Crystal.
If a buffalo mated with a lion, this creature would’ve been their offspring. I didn’t need any skill to tell me I’d be in deep shit if we woke the thing up.
So we did the sensible thing and ran.
With that little event, we also ran out of time. The sky had begun dimming above. Much as I would’ve liked to find more glitch artefacts, wherever they were scattered, I didn’t want to deal with tree fathers at night. I’d just have to hope I would be enough in the dungeon, if I managed to get that far.
What with all the excitement and the running around, I’m not ashamed to admit that I was as lost as could be in the forest. Which would’ve sucked if not for Crystal. Whatever snide remarks I could make about the gnark, I couldn’t deny her uncanny sense of direction. She got us easily back onto a narrow path, that twisted and turned down vales and up hills, all the way to an honest to goodness road.
“Near now,” she said in a low whisper.
I wanted to step out onto the road but Tusk grabbed my boot heel and dragged me back.
“Not on road, stupid human,” Crystal hissed. “Guards on road.”
Eternity didn’t fly anymore but was, instead, draped over my shoulder again, just watching as we made our way towards our target.
It didn’t take long to spot the first houses through the trees. We were coming up on Harriet’s Heap from the hill-side of the village, so we got a pretty good look down into what was, to my eyes, a completely deserted settlement.
Where Carmill Hill had been bursting with life and activity, with noise and colour, Harriet’s Heap was a dead place from afar, quiet as the grave, utterly still. I got the scent of smoke on the wind, followed immediately by the thick, cloying stench of decay, the same that I’d felt in Carmill’s Hill near that fruit tree. My stomach tightened painfully as we got even closer.
If I ever had misgiving about the Crystal’s demand, they all disappeared when we got close enough. There were people in the streets of the village. A lot of people.
None moved.
“Corruption,” Crystal hissed in my ear. “Nobody left. All taken.”
None of the people moved and there wasn’t a sound aside from the faint evening breeze whispering through the trees.
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