“Your objective is to survive by any means necessary,” the Queene said. “Do not hurt non-combatants. Go.”
I immediately ducked as a knife flew over my head, right where my back would’ve been. I turned and stepped back from Aankin, my attacker, and raised my hands to cast a Spell. The Queene’s words were permission enough to fight back, so I went ahead with it.
You have cursed Level 29 Faerie Champion with Crippling Chill. For the next 15 seconds, he loses 7.76 Health and 6.21 Stamina each second, and his Dexterity score is lowered by 15.5.
56.2 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 252.
Aankin stumbled at the effect and chuckled. “So you were hiding some magic from me! Strange, I had you pinned as a melee fighter. Seems I underestimated you.”
He lunged forward, much more quickly than he’d been when he stabbed at me before, despite the fact that his Dexterity was lower. He must’ve been holding out on me. His knife was held out, ready to strike again, but Erani stepped in and blasted him with an Explosive Firebolt, shaking the entire building. He stumbled back, coughing and fanning away the smoke.
“Two magic users? I understand your struggle with the test of strength, now. Still, think a couple Spells are enough to kill me?” He lunged forward again with an excited grin on his face, dodging another Firebolt shot by Erani, which flew past him and impacted the walls of the palace, blowing a hole straight through so that I could see the night sky outside.
He continued rushing at me, but I shot him with a couple Rays of Frost, the fast-moving beams of cold much more difficult to evade.
You have struck Level 29 Faerie Champion for 39 damage using Ray of Frost.
You have cursed Level 29 Faerie Champion with Ray of Frost. For the next 5 seconds, his Dexterity score is lowered by 6.38.22.6 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 228.
You have struck Level 29 Faerie Champion for 50 damage using Ray of Frost.
You have cursed Level 29 Faerie Champion with Ray of Frost. For the next 5 seconds, his Dexterity score is lowered by 6.38.
22.6 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 206.
“Ooh,” Aankin stopped and rotated his shoulder, stretching as he no doubt felt the effects of the two stacking curses. He looked behind him at the hole in the wall. “You two are packing some firepower, huh?”
“You sure you’re okay with us attacking you?” I asked. “I don’t wanna tear down your palace by accident. Or kill you, for that matter.”
“We can build a new palace,” the Queene spoke up, spectating our battle, “and I can get a new Champion.”
“You’re okay with dying, just like that?” Erani asked Aankin, obviously taken aback.
“No, no,” Aankin laughed, stretching his arms as he spoke. “My spirit is hundreds of years old. Every time one of my bodies dies, I just possess the most worthy Champion Vessel that lives in this village. They train every day in hopes that I do. Honestly, I’ve been meaning to get a new body soon, this one’s getting a bit rusty.”
“The Champion Vessels, they’re conscious?” I asked. “And they’re alright with you just taking over their bodies?”
“Of course. Who wouldn’t want to be chosen as the strongest candidate in the entire village?”
The Nymph looked back and forth between me and Aankin as we talked, no doubt confused at the sight of Aankin and I, who were fighting just moments before, standing around and talking – albeit still on guard.
Truthfully, it wasn’t like I was only asking questions for the sake of curiosity. No, I also just needed a break. Despite the fact that I’d only moved a small amount, my incredibly low Stamina reserves were begging me to just lie down and take a nap. I’d depleted them almost fully so that I could keep myself alive with Regenerate, and I was really feeling that cost now.
“Well, seems like that curse you put on me has worn off,” Aankin said. “Let’s get back to it.”
Oh. He was stalling, too.
The muscular Faerie dashed toward me once again, forcing me to step back as I shot off another Ray of Frost, bringing my Mana down to 183, but he anticipated it and dodged right as I cast the Spell. Before he could slash his knife across my chest, though, Erani leapt in the way, blocking his strike with her body. A flash of light blinded me, the matrix of Angelic Shield’s protective wires blocking the knife from piercing her.
It was then that the Nymph seemed to decide that yes, we were fighting with this guy, and leapt into the fray. It lashed its whip from behind Aankin, striking him hard with the thorny vine and ripping his shirt with the tiny spikes covering the weapon. He turned to face his new enemy, and Erani and I took that opportunity to flee further away from him, exiting his melee range.
The Nymph struck at him once again, but he caught its weapon in his hands, seemingly ignoring the thorns covering it, and yanked hard. The Nymph didn’t let go, but it seemed its strength wasn’t close to Aankin’s, and he pulled the Nymph toward him. He flung the whip through the air, the Nymph’s relatively small body flying across the room and slamming into one of the pillars holding the roof of the palace up. It crashed straight through, destroying the pillar and causing the ceiling to suddenly sag and threaten to collapse.
The Faerie Queene, watching this unfold, smiled amusedly. “I know I said it was okay if you broke the palace, but don’t try to. Here,” she looked over, through the hole Erani had made in the wall, and called out to someone outside. “Uungik the Sturdy. Yes, you. Get some others and come repair the palace.
A sentient puddle of goop that was sludging through the street responded, a low hum creating a voice that spoke in a language I didn’t know. Its four eyes floated freely in the muck, rotating to look inside at us.
“Yes, I know there’s a fight going on in here,” the Queene responded. “Just not sure that I care. C’mon, get moving.”
The Slime – Uungik, apparently – glopped its way through the hole in the wall, splatting on the floor, and continued forward toward the pillar.
I turned my attention back toward the fight in front of me. Aankin had turned back around and began rushing back toward me, knife still held in his hand. Erani stood between us, prepared to protect me with her body. It was strange having to be the one in the back; Noxious Grasp was useless, and I still hadn’t been able to find a time to use Gravity Well effectively – its fairly limited range was much more restrictive when I wanted to be as far away as possible from my enemies.
Regardless, I knew my role, and kept back while Erani kept Aankin occupied. I wasn’t able to get a clean shot from back here with Erani so close to my enemy. How did she ever find times to shoot our enemies with Firebolt? Especially when her Spell exploded. Regardless, her Angelic Shield did most of the work there – she had basically no melee training to my knowledge, so her ability to dodge and parry were next to none. She ducked and weaved, trying her best to keep out of range of the knife, but Aankin was simply more experienced.
Flash of light after flash of light blinked at me as Aankin slashed his knife against Erani over and over. She was fine for now, but I knew her Mana couldn’t hold up forever. A huge explosion enveloped them both as she cast a point-blank Firebolt, blasting Aankin away and leaving Erani standing in the flames. She was breathing hard. I stepped forward, now that I had a good shot on our enemy, and fired off a few more Rays of Frost at the stunned Faerie.
48 damage. 51 damage. 49 damage. With each Ray came another notification, and another layer of sleet that covered Aankin. I got a notification that Ray of Frost had Ranked up – and that it had hit my new Soft Cap of Rank 6 – but ignored it for now.
It started to seem like we could actually win, and once the Nymph could get back up and rejoin the fight, I felt like my confidence would cement itself. We outnumbered him, and just needed to get in enough pokes of damage to get him down.
My Mana was getting a bit low, falling down to 114. But I truly felt like we could do this.
I looked over at the Nymph to see how it was doing. It was only just then getting up from the rubble of the pillar, sitting up after the hard fall and rubbing the dust from its white eyes. It blinked and glanced around, its sight landing on the pile of goop that was still slowly approaching.
The Nymph shrieked and backed away, kicking its feet to distance between it and the innocent Uungik. It grabbed its whip, preparing to strike at the pile of goo that was moving in its direction.
“Shit,” I glanced over at Aankin, who was slowly getting up from the ground. I shot him with another Ray of Frost and turned, running to the Nymph. The Faerie Queene had explicitly said that we could not hurt any non-combatants, and the Nymph was definitely about to do that. The Queene herself was watching with a smirk on her face as I rushed over. She’d definitely done this on purpose. How did she even know the Nymph was afraid of these things?
I reached down to the Nymph, restraining the arm that had the whip. It flinched when I touched it, but calmed down when it saw it was me. I helped it get to its feet, after which I let go of it, pointing at Aankin, trying to communicate that he was our enemy here. It looked at me for a moment, then turned back to the still-approaching Uungik and raised its whip, preparing to strike.
Crippling Chill has worn off of Level 29 Faerie Champion.
You have struck Level 29 Faerie Champion for 116 damage and drained 93 Stamina over the course of 15 seconds using Crippling Chill.
“No!” I shouted and grabbed the Nymph’s arm once again, restraining it from killing the Slime. I wished I could just tell it what was going on.
An explosion blasted out from behind me. I turned to see another hole blown in the wall – Aankin must’ve dodged another one of Erani’s Firebolts. He rushed forward and slashed at her with his knife once again, much faster and harder than he’d been doing before, and I heard a distinctive shatter and watched as the glowing lines of Angelic Shield ripped apart and were flung into the air.
Fuck, I’d forgotten about Crippling Chill! I’d gotten a notification that it’d worn off while trying to keep the Nymph from attacking the Slime and had completely forgotten to refresh it on Aankin. With his suddenly-stronger Dexterity, he was able to dodge her Firebolt and break her shield. Erani was pushed back from the force of his strike, landing on her back a few paces away from him. Then, he turned toward me, who was still trying to keep the Nymph from mutilating this pile of goo in front of us.
“You don’t have your protector anymore,” he laughed at me. “Let’s dance!”
Aankin rushed forward at me. It was at that point that the Nymph noticed him and turned to strike, but he was too fast and too late. He arrived right in front of me and stabbed out with his knife. I ducked and cast Crippling Chill, trying to trip him up with that, but he’d already gotten used to the effect, and it obviously didn’t surprise him to have it re-enabled.
I tried to stand back up from my ducking position as Aankin prepared to swipe at me once again, but my tired legs gave out on me, unable to lift me back up, and I collapsed back on my butt, completely open to attack. Aankin grinned, lifting up his knife for a stab, but the Nymph leapt onto him, wrapping its whip around his throat and strangling him with the thorny vine. His eyes bulged and he elbowed back at it, trying to push it off of him, but its small stature helped it here, allowing it to easily dodge his frantic strikes.
With my Mana barely above 30, I couldn’t do much to help but back away to make myself a harder target if Aankin did break out of the choke hold. I looked behind them as Erani just began struggling back to her feet. Once she was up and able to continue, we could finish this guy.
“Hm,” the Faerie Queene grunted as she watched the spectacle in front of her, her loud voice echoing through the damaged palace. “That’s too boring an ending. Iinwak the Brave, Oonwit the Speedy, come in here,” she called through the holes in the walls once again.
Two more piles of goop came tumbling through. One of them moved slightly faster than the other, at more of a tortoise’s pace than a snail’s. I guessed that one was Oonwit, judging by its name.
Uungik, the first Slime, had only just then arrived at the pillar. It began slowly – incredibly slowly – sucking up stones into its body, sloshing over to the pillar, and excreting the stones back onto it.
“Uungik the Sturdy, Iinwak the Brave, and Oonwit the Speedy,” the Queene commanded, “I order you to–” and then her speech changed, no longer speaking a language I understood, but instead humming in a low tone in the same way the Slimes had spoken to her. Her loud voice resonated throughout the room, causing minor tremors until she was done.
Immediately, the three Slimes changed course, now heading directly for the Nymph, who was still busy trying to strangle Aankin to death. Or, not to death, really – he’d just get a new body. Strangle to rebirth? Anyway, it was trying to cut off his air supply until his body stopped functioning, so it thankfully didn’t have time to look around and see the group of Slimes slowly encroaching. And the Slimes moved slowly enough that they probably wouldn’t reach it for another hour – maybe in fifty minutes, for Oonwit the Speedy.
The Queene sighed as she seemed to realize the same thing I had. “That won’t do. Let’s see, let’s see…” she pondered, looking off in the distance at nothing in particular.
“Could you just let the fight go on without interfering and cheating on your Champion’s behalf?” I asked as I struggled to my feet. “Bending the rules in your favor doesn’t show off your strength that well.”
“Oh, but it does,” she smiled at me. “It is precisely because I’m stronger that I can cheat. Otherwise, you’d just kill me for cheating. But you can’t do that, can you? See? I’d say that shows off my power very efficiently. Oh! I know!” She said suddenly, looking back at the Nymph. Then she began speaking in another, new language, one that I also didn’t understand. Only… no, it wasn’t entirely new. I’d heard it once before. Back when we’d first met the two Nymphs, when they were speaking with each other, was this the exact same language that the Queene was speaking now?
The Nymph’s head snapped over to look at the Queene as she spoke – I’d be surprised, too, if the first person in days spoke a language I could understand. The Queene finished whatever she was saying, and watched smugly as the Nymph suddenly looked around itself, obviously searching for the Slimes. The moment it saw them, it yelped once again and backed away, weakening its grip on the whip it was strangling Aankin with, allowing him to finally escape from her and push her away.
“Finally!” he rubbed his bleeding neck, “thought that’d never end. Anyway,” he marched up to me, knife raised. I tried to back away, but my exhausted body could still barely move, and he quickly got ahold of my shirt, raised his knife, and struck.
You have been stabbed. 29 damage.
Your Health is 0.
You have died.