I considered waking Crystal and Tusk for this, but didn’t want them making a racket. They looked like they’d gone through plenty while I’d been clearing the dungeon.
Maybe I could wake the furnars, but I had no idea how they’d react. Then the glitch artefacts would get wind of activity and things might get dicey. The iepurran guards in Carmill Hill were stupid strong, but I didn’t know if I could rely on that here.
For now, I would try this crazy thing called stealth. I’d managed well enough in the dungeon—prior to the whole shield through wall fiasco—so I was reasonably certain I could get the drop on at least one of the threats.
The moment my foot passed the circle’s threshold, I felt something like a shimmer across my skin and a slight resistance.
“You really can’t come back in,” Ever said as it hopped by my side, stopping on the edge. “Methol set this until morning. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“Noted,” I said and stepped fully through, into the chill evening air.
Even if I knew the furnars out here weren’t the same as the memories in the mine, I still shivered as I stepped gingerly among the sleeping bodies, trying not to step on any of them or on their antennae. The memory of metal mandibles biting into my shoulder and neck was hard to ignore. Goosebumps crawled all over my skin as I made my way through the carpet of bodies, expecting at any time another bite on my ankles, or claws grabbing my legs.
Nothing happened. I sweated.
By the time I was past, the two dots were just a few houses away, though they appeared to be on different paths. I would have to prioritise.
A quick glance at the full map revealed that the nearest threat was coming right down the main road that crossed the village from gate to centre. The other seemed to be lost among the houses, advancing more slowly, poking through the homes for some reason. Hopefully there was no one in its path.
Get the one coming down the road, then head for the other. Seemed a good, low-risk plan. I dropped my last free attribute point into Constitution and watched it rise to 15. Nothing happened for a moment but I felt that refreshing feeling of using a point.
“I expect I don’t cross a threshold if some of my points come from gear, right?”
Eternity gripped my shoulder tighter, and whispered in my ear.
“That is correct. You need unaugmented stats to break through thresholds. Keep in mind that your energy regeneration is hobbled by the dungeon purge.”
The interface had said this back when I’d executed the purge. Without Eternity’s warning, it had completely slipped my mind.
“Thanks,” I whispered.
I also jotted down a note about how chatty Eternity was now. Not that I minded, but it was weird.
“It’s not that weird,” Eternity hissed in my ear, clearly reading my file.
“Yes, it is. Any other changes I should be aware of?”
Through the lengthening gloom of late afternoon, the village looked just as ominous and foreboding as it had the past night. It was odd to think so little time had passed. It felt like ages.
I felt like I’d lived years in a night and day.
“Be mindful of your strength,” Eternity said. “You are weakened and will heal slower. Try and protect yourself. I look forward to seeing how your assessment made the jump it has.”
Fuck you too, Eternity. Didn’t feel the need to say it aloud as I slipped between the two buildings coming perpendicular to the main road. The enemy was on the other side, still advancing, slow, almost cautious in its approach. This wasn’t the mad dash I’d seen in Carmill Hill, when all the glitch artefacts had rushed us.
The dungeon hadn’t yet sent out the ping, so the enemy was probably more passive, like that river stalker had been. I still had at least fifteen hours before the horde would come, so this was likely just a straggler or some scout.
I spied it as I made my way to the exit between buildings, sword gripped tight, battered shield clasped against my chest.
It wasn’t a spider, so thank fuck for a small mercy. If I never saw another spider as long as I lived, I’d be perfectly happy. Didn’t make the new creature any less weird, though, mainly because it wasn’t a single critter. I zoomed in on the dot on the map just to make sure and, right enough, I could immediately see there were several dots clustered together.
“Futu-i,” I cursed silently.
A furnar gatherer ambled up the road, swaying from side to side, absolutely laden with headcrabs. The only thing visible were its legs, while its top half was completely covered in writhing creatures. They formed a lumpy, shivering ball of ugly that sprouted way too many twitching razor legs.
Another quick check of the map revealed the other red dot was still wandering around the clusters of furnar buildings towards the village centre. If I moved quickly here, I could probably deal with this nuisance and have enough time to see to the other.
Deep breath. Held. Exhaled.
No skills this time, just blade and shield. The moment I got out, they’d all rush me. Predictable behaviours and all. Shield bash whoever leapt first, cut the next, try and not get carved up by those blades. Easy.
It did go, reasonably, as planned.
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
I stepped out. The creature turned to me. All the headcrabs crowding it leapt in my direction almost simultaneously. Stupidly reckless and wonderfully predictable. They were so tightly bound that a few of them ricocheted off their fellows and flew off wildly.
A swing of my shield and the first headcrab exploded on impact, the thorns cutting it to ribbons. The next was cut in two. I hesitated as the third and fourth bore down on me almost at the same time. For that, I got slammed into the chest by the closest of the two and sent stumbling, breath punched out of me.
The fourth sailed past me, legs wriggling through the air, and smashed into the building’s wall.
Before the headcrab had a chance to dig in, I hit it with the sword’s hilt, right in its stupid squishy eyes. It let out a squeal, ripped apart whatever was left of my shirt, and fell off. I kicked it away so hard that pain flared up in my knee.
I’d avoided the other two and they were now circling me.
My heart thundered and I struggled to draw in a proper breath. This was much harder now than it had been before. Just the shield bash alone had sent my pulse spiking.
On the far side of the little intersection, there was the furnar gatherer, circling with ominous intent. Fuck, that one was going to hurt if it got a clean hit in.
The headcrabs leapt. My sword met them in a wide arc and sent them back down in pieces. The fifth climbed all the way back atop the furnar’s head when I spun on it. Both creatures charged as one, the furnar swinging chrome-plated fists at me while the headcrab lay on its head like a blade-tipped helmet.
I grinned as I stood my ground for that heartbeat between plan and execution.
“Surprise, fuckers.”
I poured MP into the blade at the very last moment, right as I swung the sword. It was part parry, part deflection, all blazing hot fury as blood-red fire engulfed the blade. It caught the furnar in the chest, punched straight through muscle and chitin and bone and whatever other bullshit it had inside, and exited right beneath its chin. It kept going and I cleaved its head into two uneven, sizzling bits, along with the headcrab.
A single activation with a clear strike, and it had barely cost me a small sliver of my precious MP. I made a note for the future to prepare for cases such as these, where my resources became suddenly finite.
Satisfaction flooded me as the creatures toppled to the ground, dark, oily blood spilling at my feet. I drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly.
[Congratulations]
[You have defeated: Furnar gatherer deviant x1]
[You have defeated: Headcrab deviant x5]
[You have trained: Shield Bash - INITIATE]
I don’t think I was using the shield quite as it had been intended when made, but that enchantment on it was no fucking joke.
Eternity came down from where it had observed. “Much better, yes. Good progress, Klaus.”
“Had practice.” I extinguished the fire and took a minute to get my breath back. “This is going to suck tomorrow. I feel like I did before I came here. Will I get back what I lost?”
“You haven’t lost anything. Your strength will return as your body adapts to this change.”
“Can’t I do something to hurry it along?”
Eternity let out a spark and a puff of smoke. “Unless you’d like your brain oozing out your ears, no.”
I turned and slunk back into the shadows after checking I hadn’t missed any red dots in the area. There were none, so I headed for the other issue. So far, I felt good, though tired down to the bone. It was only the food that kept me going, and the excitement of trying out the IGNIS rune again.
True to what the interface had said, my MP regeneration was down to almost nothing. I barely got another point back by the time I got in reach of the next enemy.
“Well… fuck…”
Not a furnar.
Not headcrabs.
Not even a spider.
It wasn’t lost among the houses. It was too large to actually pass through the narrow gaps and down the side roads.
“Fuck!”
Too late to backpedal.
I’d walked right in view of the creature and was now staring at the thing as it turned huge composite eyes on me.
Ants have queens. Queens tend to be very large.
Furnars have queens too. They eat people. Because they are very fucking large!
And furnar queens are also, it seemed, extremely terrifying. Like something out of Giger’s museum of horrors, just the sight of this thing turned my bowels to mush.
“I don’t see chrome,” I said as I stared.
The creature advanced on dozens of chitinous legs, each of them the size of my arm.
Its front—top?—resembled a furnar, just thrice the size. Two huge eyes were plastered atop a bulbous head armed with wicked-looking pincers. Its four arms were tipped with hooks rather than fingers, and they all moved in terrifying fashion.
But the worst of it was beneath. Atop that multitude of legs lay a huge, maggot-like body. Bone-white, it moved a bit like a soft-boiled egg would. Immediately my gorge rose and I had to force myself not to be sick.
“Eternity, is it a deviant?”
I drew back two steps. Then a few more. It was taller than a house. Its mandibles dribbled some viscous fluid as it moved its head side to side, those huge eyes
“It is not,” Eternity said what I feared. “This is Harriet. She is enraged.”
“How do I un-enrage her?”
“Say hello, maybe?”
Yeah, that wasn’t going to work. Not as Harriet raised her head and gave out a long, ear-splitting chirp, accompanied by rapid clicks of those terrifying mandibles. They sounded like gunshots through the air.
Why did I keep meeting people unreasonably angry at me?! First Melenith, then Methol, now this one. I was due someone actually happy to see me.
Another scream boiled out of Harriet. Was she calling for her brood? Searching for the other furnars?
Your children are missing. There’s a random person in your village, armed with a sword. How would this look for a queen?
I retreated slowly, not losing sight of the queen in the gathering dark of evening. Two of the buildings I passed had gaping holes through them, as if some battering ram had been used. Couldn’t help noticing one of them had the general oval shape of a very large molerat.
“Futu-i-a?.” I groaned.
Yeah, I definitely wasn’t going to talk my way out of this.
“Talk to her,” I hissed to Eternity. “Doesn’t she understand—”
Her head lowered and I saw blinding white stars exploding in my view. Like a tidal wave, anger crashed into me and sent my head spinning, pure agony pouring into my skull. Nothing had actually hit me, but I felt as if something was trying to claw its way out through my eyeballs.
My throat closed up and my ears popped. A vice squeezed on my skull, tighter and tighter, the pain unbearable.
It was all I could do to keep my eyes open and pinned to the monster as she advanced among the lengthening shadows. The white of her swollen abdomen glowed like Melenith’s hair had, and I felt her power turned on me like the beam of a searchlight.
I didn’t have anything to protect myself with against an attack I couldn’t see. And it was an attack! There was intent behind the power that threatened to squish me into the cobbles. Harriet wanted me dead, and I felt every little bit of that hatred washing over me.
“Say. Something.” I growled and stumbled, dropped my shield and raised my hands to my head. Blood gushed from my nose. I bit into my lower lip and tasted copper. “I can’t—”
“Use the sword,” Eternity said. “The flame.”
I obeyed immediately, pouring my little MP into the blade. The flame burst out as hot as ever, casting a red light across the village intersection. Harriet drew a step back. Then another. Suspicion. Fear. Worry. Anger. Smouldering fury. A moment’s slack on the attack and I used that to draw back several steps, trying to walk myself out of range.
More anger. Accusing silence. Fear.
Why fear? I coughed and shook my head, trying to rid myself of the pain. Then realised I held a burning brand in a village where all homes were built of wood. I swung the sword towards a building and Harriet almost cried out, voice like a jackhammer of clicks.
I raised my free hand to her. “I’m here to help.” I think I said the words. But through the gasps, they may as well have been any kind of garbled nonsense. My MP bar was almost gone. “I’ll stop the flame. Don’t want to hurt. I want to help.”
The dot on my map shifted colours. Deep red to orange then to yellow.
The fire winked out. Darkness crashed back down.
Harriet’s dot turned back to blood-red.