Chapter 9: Bloody Popcorn Part 2

  The adventures chased after the fleeing Goom. The first few minutes had been done cautiously, but after a few hundred yards of no traps or decoy chests being spotted, they had picked up the pace.

  With Pellet leading the way, more ground was covered. At first, there was little sign of what they were trying to find. The woods around and ahead of them seemed peaceful and empty of all but the most basic furry critters.

  The smaller creatures scurried out of the way of the party. Pellet winged back briefly and hooted to Winnie, who nodded and said,

  “We’re getting closer. Pellet, when the fight starts, I need you to stay out of it. I don’t want you hurt.”

  The juvenile owlet clacked her beak in distaste but bobbed assent unhappily at her friend’s insistence as Cato eyed the owl.

  A short while later, signs of passage could be seen through the underbrush as they pursued their quarry. Cato plucked some tufts of hair from the bushes as the party passed and glanced at the numerous broken patches of brush. He spoke up too loudly to the rest of the party,

  “They know we’re following!”

  Omara chastised his volume with a smack upside the head.

  “Yell a little louder so they can confirm it.”

  Rubbing the back of his head with a scowl, he ignored her quietly. He muttered softly,

  “This seems careless, even for the haste.”

  Nixen spoke up after overhearing him,

  “Panic is a beast of a motivator, but it makes for shit-decision-making.”

  Cato grunted in response and kept moving.

  The adventurers continued advancing through the woods in the wake of disturbed plant life. Finally, reaching a small clearing, a rustling and snapping of twigs ahead of them could be heard. Panicked grunts and chitters put them on edge as a small white-furred creature burst forth from the brush at the edge of the small clearing.

  It looked like the ones they had faced earlier but much smaller, probably a child of the creatures. It stumbled to a halt, the stalks on its tiny head bobbing in panic at seeing the adventuring party. It started to raise a keening cry at being confronted while fleeing from something.

  It fluffed up its fur as it cried in fear. Then, brandishing almost delicate claws at the group, its advance on them was timid.

  Nixen spotted an opportunity with an untended, panicked, less dangerous foe and shouted,

  “Winnie! Cap it!”

  Winnie didn’t hesitate. Drawing a silver chain from her belt, she rushed the diminutive creature. She stepped to avoid the clumsy swipes of its claws.

  Using its attack to push the arms aside and spin the creature around, she swung the chain at its neck. The chain glowed as it touched the creature’s neck and wrapped around, snapping its ends with a faint click as Winnie released the end of the chain she was holding.

  The ends of the chain snapped closed, and a small surge of lightning leaped through the creature from the chain, cutting its keening off as it dropped to the ground, unconscious.

  Nixen smiled at the sight and said to the others hurriedly,

  “Well done, Winnie. The rest of you, make sure your caplaces are at hand. You need to cap one if you can. We could advance all of you with this quest.”

  Omara touched the caplace already hanging from her belt with a nervous smile. Cato fetched his own from his pack and attached it to his belt. More snapping branches and growling could be heard coming through the woods towards them as they finished.

  Cato readied his daggers again and advanced towards the sounds as Omara started a low chant where she stood. Nixen dismounted the axe from their back and took a ready stance. Winnie was dragging the tiny creature to the party’s rear as a giant purple-fur-crowned, silver-striped tomb vermin burst from the brush ahead of them. Snarling, it saw the party and charged.

  Cato danced around its initial rush and planted one of his daggers into a flank as it rushed past him. Omara finished her chant. A series of three magical balls of energy appeared over her shoulders.

  They changed to pointed, glowing shafts in short flashes and shot forward at the enemy. Omara pulled her caplace from her belt and followed the missiles forward as they lanced into the creature’s front legs, causing it to stumble and fall with a snarl. Then, as it sprawled onto the ground, she closed with the beast and slapped the chain at its neck.

  With a snap and crackle of electricity, though this one struggled more with the flashes of subduing lighting before succumbing, the enemy was rendered unconscious.

  Nixen smiled again.

  Two out of three isn’t bad so far.

  They spoke to the party aloud,

  “Good! Cato, if we can get you one, drinks are on me tonight. Let’s keep moving. Those caplaces will hold for days.”

  Cato grinned eagerly and rushed further into the underbrush on the edge of the clearing. Omara swiped the hair from her face and bowed to Winnie as the woman smiled back at her and followed Cato. Nixen gestured to Omara, and the mage scurried after.

  Nixen brought up the rear as the party moved forward cautiously. Their pace was rewarded when they heard snarls and ripping sounds coming from ahead. Cato moved to the edge of a much larger clearing and cursed as he came upon the aftermath of a battle.

  Three tomb vermin with lighter-colored fur fought over the remains of some smaller white-furred creatures. Across from them in the clearing, another four faced off against each other. Everything was snarling viciously.

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  The four vermin not fighting over the feast of carrion exchanged swipes and bites, occasionally tangling into a ball of snapping jaws and flying fur. The three feeding on the corpses of the tiny bodies turned on Cato as he burst into the clearing. Growling over the interruption of their meal, they advanced towards the startled rogue as the rest of the party came out of the trees. Pellet shrieked warning and flew into the canopy, hiding from the ensuing fight as Winnie had requested.

  Nixen, seeing the unexpected slaughter in front of them, snapped at the party,

  “Winnie, protect Omara! Cato, with me! Omara, fire at will!”

  The group moved according to Nixen’s orders, with Winnie falling back to support Omara, who had already started another low chant. Cato moved forward with the dwarf to flank to either side of the advancing beasts.

  The three snarling creatures were smeared with blood all around their muzzles and heads, where they had stuck them into the carcasses of the bodies to feed. There was little intelligence in their eyes as the mobs advanced. Nixen gave thanks to Jeph for the lack of coordination in the attack.

  As Cato and Nixen advanced, two vermin broke off and closed with the pair. In the background, the foursome of hate and violence continued with furious snarls.

  The lone remaining beast approached Winnie and Omara. Winnie stepped slightly farther forward to meet it as she let out a low chant and started gesturing. It was almost a counterpoint to Omara’s fast muttering under her breath.

  At Winnie’s words, semi-thick vines burst from the ground to snare the vermin’s feet. Another cluster of vines sprang up to the side, forming a simulacrum of lashing and twisting thorned appendages. The summoned simulacrum started forward with a strange gait as if wading through water, its feet dragging furrows through the dirt. It engaged its foe with the whipping tendrils.

  Omara finished her chant as three small orbs of light formed over her head in a circular pattern. The orbs flashed slower this time, the crudely forming points directed at the vermin.

  The vine figure had wrapped two arms around the vermin’s upper and lower muzzle. It ignored the slashes from the vermin’s claws, caught its snapping jaws in the thick roots of its hands, and started wrenching them open.

  As the jaws were stretched to their breaking point, Omara’s three glowing spikes floating around her head flashed forward one at a time, lancing into the creature, creating more snarls from the vermin. One landed in the back of the simulacrum.

  Winnie shouted.

  “Careful!”

  “Sorry!”

  Yiped Omara.

  Nixen’s and Cato’s pair had focused most of their aggression toward the stout dwarf. The smaller, juicier target with shiny plates all over it was appealing. Many creatures enjoy shiny things and can be relied upon to express this love by chewing on them.

  Nixen focused on diverting the swipes of the claws. The dwarf fended off bites by knocking the heads to the side with the flat of the wielded axe. The blunt slapping of vermin heads made distinct gong sounds as the axe rebounded from the heads of Nixen’s foes.

  Cato had circled behind the two vermin as the dwarf distracted them. Then, seeing an opportunity, Cato launched onto one of their backs and started a flashing stab-phony of attacks into its back and sides. The creature released a loud, painful scream as it collapsed under the onslaught and Cato.

  The final creature turned at the sound with some recognition of sense lighting in its eyes. It let forth another vicious snarl as it started forward to eradicate the human who had wounded its companion.

  The vermin turned toward the rogue. It let out a snarling scream as the dwarf used the edge of their axe to land a blow on one of its hind legs, crippling its movement.

  “Cato! Caplace that!” Shouted the dwarf.

  Staring at the dwarf from atop his improvised and bloody mount, Cato seemed not to understand. But, then, he panicked with the wounded Vermin advancing in a hobbling, shuffling gait and slavering jaws.

  Instead of retrieving the silver chain from his belt and securing the tomb vermin, he rushed forward in a stumble and did an encore of his previous work with his daggers. This time to the throat and chest of his victim.

  So panicked and rushed was Cato’s attack that he ended up bowling over his target and landing on top of it. However, to the rogue’s credit, he didn’t stop stabbing as the pair went down in a bloody, noisy heap.

  Nixen let out a frustrated sigh and said,

  “Or….that, I guess.”

  The dwarf’s magnificently bearded head turned to check on the other two party members. Nixen’s eyes widened in alarm at seeing Winnie struggling to control the simulacrum.

  Winnie’s vine creature had the last vermin on the ground as well. However, it seemed to be dismembering what was left of a carcass filled with holes by pulling it apart in a frenzy. Winnie’s chant was a stumbling utterance of nonsense syllables. She had lost control of her conversation with nature.

  Omara was panting heavily behind Winnie. The mage was about to collapse herself, but she grimaced and faced the last group of creatures.

  Winnie moved her gestures lower to the ground and slowed her chant, attempting to calm her creation and focus it on the next fight. Her cadence steadied somewhat, smoothing her words. Her chant was spotted with short bursts of magical light as the spell misfired in some areas around the simulacrum.

  Quickly glancing at the last group of vermin fighting each other, the dwarf saw the last four creatures were still snarling and snapping viciously, though the two slightly larger, oddly colored vermin had taken far less damage. Nixen reached a decision. With a prayer to Jeph spoken under their breath, the dwarf rushed the snarling group alone.

  The four beasts snarled and swiped at the newcomer as the dwarf ran in. Taking the blows on the plates of the master-crafted Dwarven armor, Nixen ignored the attacks. However, the battle axe moved smoothly as the dwarf swung, decapitating the first opponent.

  The axe moved faster. It split the chest of one creature before cleaving into the head of the third.

  When a tug on the weapon failed to retrieve it, the dwarf abandoned the axe. Instead, they drew a backup dirk from their equipment belt and stepped around the last creature’s rush faster than Omara thought possible in the heavy armor.

  As the beast rushed past, the dirk was planted forcefully just behind its head at the base of its skull, severing the spine. Nixen then turned and tugged fiercely upon their axe, ripping it from the corpse with a loud gory splatter.

  Winnie had mostly calmed her creation, with only a few small flashes of uncontrolled magic around her simulacrum. She was looking for more enemies but seemed unsurprised at the blindingly fast attacks of the dwarf.

  Cato was getting up from the now holey form of his opponent, panting and looking around wildly, covered in blood and dirt, but hadn’t seemed to register the dwarf’s rush. Omara stood still, panting but wide-eyed at the display.

  “Great Odin’s hairy titties! Don’t piss off Nixen,”

  She whispered. Odin let this one slide as she had said it quietly…and it had been a good fight.

  Nixen again shook their head with a frown as they surveyed the battlefield, thinking.

  Lots of bodies, but only the party moving. Guess Cato will have to stick around until he can cap something on a future quest.

  With another soft sigh, the dwarf looked over the novices again for wounds. This provided a perfect view as the other three white creatures from the party’s earlier encounter leaped out of the trees behind Winnie and Omara. Pellet shrieked, warning of danger too late from their perch in the canopy.

  One of the odder sights of Nixen’s long life was present as the mobs rushed his novices. Behind everyone, in the tree line.

  In the middle of mob-infested woods, a scribe wearing short pants with leather sandals and an odd shirt sat calmly scribbling in a large leather tomb draped over a small desk. His quill was oddly shaped and shined metallic.

  Ignoring the scribe as if he weren’t there, all three white-furred creatures rushed toward the rear of the novices. What could have been cute fuzzy faces were twisted with resigned rage. The antenna on their heads bobbed wildly, claws flashing with lightning, eyes and their limited attire faintly glowing green.