Horace took a back seat area out of the way but with a clear view of the battlefield. He refreshed us with the enhancements again and followed up by making the turret ready for combat loading it with defensive down and poison shells. Wardi activated his after image & shadow weaver ability the Kaha causing him to emit a brief pulse as the ability activated and he disappeared into the air before our eyes, ready to sneak attack and Rhua used her strength boosting ‘War Cry’ ability charging at Broekslang.
He’s nimble for such a hulking mass though Wardi’s Prancer abilities are second to none and he’s getting off sneak attacks repeatedly whilst the after images created by his ability are taking the blows as Rhua is trying to turn him away using her enmity attracting ability throwing her axe which returns to her when she calls for it.
Lucy, meanwhile, is linking with Larry to chain together powerful arts through a method called Channel casting, a testament to her knowledge and experience as a Haberdashphylacterist, also impressive that Larry had it in him to do something so advanced. They’re linking together whilst holding their hands to the side, causes them to levitate as the power increases. Multiple orbs begin to form in the air, rotating around in front of them and glowing as they are closer to setting off. Broekslang slaps Rhua and manages to get a blow on Wardi as he spins but he quickly composes himself. Broekslang sees the art, taking the opportunity jumping over to the greenhouse.
“HELLO HANS NICE, TO SEE YOU HIDING IN THERE, BE A GOOD SPORT AND TAKE AN ART OR TWO FOR ME, THE GOODS ARE NOT PLAYING FAIR."
“Damnit, Larry we can’t keep channeling, we need to stop and use low tier spells for now or we could end up hitting Hans by accident! “Understood Lucy” he said hurriedly.
I say to the other’s we need to get him out of that greenhouse, if Broekslang breaks the glass, it may cut Hans from the shards shattering. Rhua took the initiative to charge at Broekslang again, but this time piled into him he braced for it falling to the sides back towards the house but was largely unfazed. “OO that tickled, we should do it again sometime! His voice no longer barking shouts at us. “Oh, will you shut up im tired of you!” Rhua shouted as she smashed her shield into his face.
We piled into him punching, slashing, blasting, nuking with arts. It quickly wore him down and it also seemed whatever turned him into the hulking mass wore off and he was reverting to his normal size. He lay there bleeding and panting on the floor, eyes black and blue and bleeding from the mouth.
Suddenly he began heaving, and a slug-like creature vomited out of his mouth to the floor. Writhing around; it seemed to be aware it could find another victim.
“A manipucent!, that explains his crazy behavior changes, here let me trap it” Larry said as he wrote a seal onto a scroll then pulled a jar out of his backpack to use on the manipucent. You think you’ve seen everything in this world and then you get surprised once again by the disgusting, things it decides to suddenly introduce when you don’t need it to the words appeared in my mind.
“This is only the fourth time I’ve seen one of these in action, but it’s a first to see it being used on someone of an elite status. Larry spoke and then seemed to be a bit taken aback.
“What’s up kid” Wardi said patting him on the head. “Well … this has all been difficult to process, one minute, I feel like I’m panicking, this is all so much. He said putting his head in his hands beginning to sob quietly. Horace walked to Larry and wrapped his arm around Larry’s head then gave him a thumbs up with his spare arm. Attaboy Horace, I thought, I came over to him and wrapped my arm around him also and gave him light little nudge with my fist and spoke.
“It’s alright bud, happens to the best of us, you did a damn good job out there, keep your head up high.” Whilst were tending to Larry’s crisis, Rhua convened with Lucy in the background.
“The barrier is fading now that Broekslang is returning to normal I can feel the mana fuelling the spell is waning. Lucy said with a smile on her little cheeks.
“We should go check on the ladies of the manor and try to get help for that young man upstairs, we can send him on the way with Larry whilst we get things in order Rhua said. Rhua began heading inside whilst Lucy came over to tell us the plan. Larry now calmer, was happy to wait for us with Hans at the garden gate, the barrier disappeared enough to allow passage out.
I quickly went looking for Lady Von before I joined the other’s walking up the stairs and called out to her in the armoury. “Lady Von, are you there? Broekslang is back to his old self again” “Thank the heavens good sir” A voice spoke aloud from one of the armoured figures in the corner. “I am so glad to hear papa is ok!” said Rella sobbing.
“We just have to clear up before you head out” I said before they began taking off the armour. There are traps still kicking around you see, so best you let us adventurers deal with it nothing to worry about, I’ll close the door to be safe” I continued with.
Rejoining my party members up the stairs, I told them to stop for a minute. I took out a dampener potion and threw it around us before I spoke again. Splish-splosh-splash terrible sounding noises these things make when activated.
“We need to address the elphunt in the room, what are we going to do with all the victims in the entrance hall, we are not a clean-up crew” “Figured we were just going to ask Lucy to use her art to be honest, it’s the simplest method.” Wardi spoke with a sad tone in his voice.
“No way! There needs to be an investigation before I could even think of doing that. “Lucy protested, firm in her words. Don’t think we’ll be going down that route then at this rate I thought to myself. “Lady von thinks her husband just lost the plot a little bit, I don’t think she knows that he had a couple of bakers dozens up in the loft baking away in the not-so-great type of baking way.
“Bit dark mate” Wardi said with a raised brow. “True but it’s 100% accurate and you know it” I said.
“let’s just make BLINDFOLDS, it’ll do temporarily” Horace said “Aye we can trick the ladies, we can use the guy upstairs to mask the scent, bring him down he’s probably out cold by now anyway then we can head out of here with the ladies in tow, say they is sight traps in place and we need them to be blinded” Said Wardi.
“It’s so stupid this just may work” Rhua said. Reaching the room Larry told us he put Calder in, suddenly panic ensues when we realise, he’s no longer there and it appears the blood has mysteriously disappeared that was near where he lay. “Well, that was unexpected, do you think he made it to safety? “Lucy said, expressing a dumbfounded look on her face.
“No way, he was on the edge before we found him, it hasn’t been that long between finding him and coming back” At this point we all had to shield our eyes as an extraordinary white light burned through the entire building. It must have been the same light as from the other night, the one that the townies had been talking about. Wardi used his Lightfoot ability and ran out to find out what the cause of the light was. By the time we got halfway down the hallway he was shouting at us
“ALL THE BODIES HAVE GONE! THERE’S JUST A RANDOM LITTLE GIRL ON THE FLOOR DOWN HERE.”
The pace picked up drastically upon hearing this news and when we finally reached the room, not just the bodies, but the blood was gone to, and there in the centre of what looked like circular markings from an art that had activated was a young girl.
Rhua and Lucy rushed to her, she was unresponsive however, and they looked at us worried. Lucy tried to cast healing arts, the words came, but her Lùth didn’t work. “I-I can’t cast any arts!?” Rhua used a soother salve on the girl, the thwonk activated as it landed and began squelching…nothing happened.
Panic and tension are starting to build in the room, it’s heavy in the air. I search my bags for wakey-wakey salts shaking the bottle when I do, then throw it at Rhua to give the girl. “If that doesn’t wake her then I don’t know what will” I said. Rhua popped off the cap, held it close to the young girl’s nose…nothing happened and Rhua looked down at the floor, shaking her head.
“Is she dead? Wardi said softly to Rhua. “I don’t know but what else can we do.” Rhua replied to him.
“There’s NOTHING to be done, l-l-l-leave this p-p-place, my dessert is f-f-f-finally there.”
An eerie screeching and cracking wall of voices came from the gaping hole in the ceiling. Large, thick tendrils began to slowly creep out, spreading across the ceiling and down the walls. With almost no time to react, Calder or what remained of Calder, was on the floor in the entrance hall, all but a small portion of his face was gone, just a slither on the left side visible with fraction of hair and his eye. The transformed side of his face was made up of many eyes, honeycomb in arrangement and milky in colour, as if its soul had already parted to the next life.
He began shaking violently and spoke more ominous words.
“S-s-so many of you here, a dessert platter is very unexpected, y-y-yet so welcoming!
His bones cracking and snapping as he does, his outfit is tearing to shreds as more tendrils tear out from him. The skin begins turning whiter and whiter again, becoming a pearlescent white in colour, almost ethereal in appearance, it reminded me of the servants that Serilia had in her realm only…not quite meant to exist in that place either? It’s tendrils, began growing thorns as big as swords which began smashing the walls.
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Rhua activated three different abilities “Bulwark, Phalanx, Prism mail!” looking akin to a humanoid light bulb with all the defensive enhancements active she jumped in front of us, her physical shield raised up and further art shield's formed in the air.
Tendrils quickly wrapped around the first shield and the creature in front of us unleashed a force from its terrifying eye, shattering our first line of defence like it was paper and immediately; taking control of the broken pieces and launching various shards at us.
“YIKES” Rhua shouted aloud.
“D-did it just break all the abilities and use it against us!? Lucy shouted whilst retreating to the staircase.”
Don’t use anything that it may be able to reuse for itself. Horace began trying to synthesise something alternative, scared the creature would use his own ammunition against us. Wardi activated his shadow step ability in an instant dived into a shadow and reemerged at the creatures back, when suddenly a tendril flew at him as he emerged from the shadow near its main body, impaling his shoulder but not before he left deep slashes in the vile thing.
“Hit me once and I’ll get you back tenfold you hulk ass-twat!” “Oi keeps it together I shouted at him whilst being rag dolled here there and everywhere the tendrils could reach. Not my first rodeo but my days it just never gets easier and I’m sure my grandchildren will be able to feel it.
Rhua is certainly holding her own and more, she, has done well to keep this thing focused on her and away from the dining room. Her Kaha is not endless however, and while the most fearsome attacks are focused on that area, this thing can still attack us from all directions it seemed.
Horace having completed a synthesis mid fight, shouts for us to guard up for what he’s about to do, throwing a canister into the air which bursts, instantly freezing most of the entrance hall and nearly all its tendrils of which I barely made an escape from as it froze. It’ll take me a WHILE to make that again so give it EVERYTHING YOU GOT” he piped up and we certainly lit that room up in a space of a few seconds.
Wardi, absolutely enraged began pransing across the room at light speed decapitating the tendrils and speed slicing into the monster the liquid flying out of it which I assume is it blood of sorts was painting the walls, floor and covering us and he quickly retreated into the shadows to recover from expending so much energy.
I used items from my inventory to help, drinking a bone enrichment potion, because the one-time use CRIT potion that was next up, would probably blow my arms to bits if I don’t and NOW, I thought to do something insane.
Taking an aerial approach targeting the creatures head region, I smashed it cleanly at the crown, the creatures head was practically inside its body and the ground tremored from the impact buckling the floor. The pain was unbelievable not just in my arm but my head too, must have over fired that nerve I thought.
I was rescued by one of Lucy’s safety spells as that hit took the wind out of me. She then chained several spells in succession, Ignicio, Gusto, Gaia, Raiton! Intense flames burned, furious winds sliced, tumultuous earth pummelled, raging lightning struck at the creature causing a chorus of sounds blow out, emanating throughout the room.
Horace quickly followed up with his turret and crossbow in hand, streams of projectiles flew into the creatures back dissolving it as they broke down. Damn Horace, those acid rounds are potent I thought to myself. The creature was screeching so loud you could see the soundwaves of its shrieks through the dust and the windows shattered as the wave hit them.
“O-o-ooo I am working up a great appetite, why don’t you all just lay down so I can gobble up YOU UP YUM-YUM-YUM!”
It spoke, increasing in volume as if a siren blaring, Rhua smashed it in the mouth with her shield before we ended up with permanent hearing issues. “Shut it” She growled but it just began making noises which sounded like it trying to mock us
‘clack-clack-clack.’
“After all that, it seems like it’s still ready to go full throttle did we do anything to it? Rhua shouted. The pieces that been detached from it began dissolving; however, it was quickly replacing the parts it lost, but not before several deep purple bolt arts flew at the thing from the combined efforts of the Von family. “You vile thing, you enter our home and cause all this…begone with you!” Lady Von’s words rang out from the armoury. This sudden barrage of spells seemed to anger it more than anything we had done previously.
The pearlescent white colours had now changed to a yellow, fluorescent colour and it began shaking, releasing orbs into the air.
“Something tells me we don’t want to touch those, Wardi said prematurely as they quickly homed in on us. The turret managed to take out many of them, Wardi was not so lucky however and it appeared to debilitate him greatly.
“Ugh, it feels as if I’m trying to hold up a house with every fibre of my being here” he grunted. Wardi looked at his window shouting ‘Enrevenanted’ “What the f does Enrevenanted mean!? He shouted”
"H-h-Hehe will be mine soon pranser, Y-Y-YUM CRUNCHY BONES, DELICIOUS"
it clack-clack-clacked, secreting what could only be described as drool from its body.
The numerous eyes of the creature began to tear away as a large gaping mouth with thousands of small, sharp looking teeth began to protrude outwards, it soon began trying to suck Wardi towards itself with a strong wind like ability, to which Rhua quickly changed her weapon to a flail, poured paralyzing gel from her inventory over it and smashed her weapon clean into the side of what visible head it had left. Causing all its tendrils to drop to the floor with a thud, and it slumped over noiseless as the effects took hold.
“This is just a moment’s reprieve, recover and use every potion you have or we’re dead, you lot to she shouted at the Von family, “if you have any high tier potions get them NOW” she followed up with.
Broekslang ran upstairs to look whilst Frigibits and Rella stuck around the armoury, channelling more arts.
“Only delaying my d-d-dinner time s-slurp”
The creature hissed.
Almost no time at all, just how tough is this thing!? I shouted. I looked over to Wardi and saw he had fallen unconscious between the ability used by the big pain in the rumpe in front of us. “We are down a Wardi!” I shouted. “Oh no! Wardi! Lucy cried out.
I looked around the room trying to see if anything could help us, but it was a waste, looking at my party members, Rhua was sweating profusely, Horace and Lucy were shaken to their core. Myself? Well despite the barely functioning arm, I was all right, maybe a little sore but the fear and panic seemed to have melted away.
I threw excel-salves for health recovery and pulled out the six pack of CRUNK energy cans to give us a performance enhancement and threw them out, each to Lucy, Horace and Rhua and having two for myself.
It’s so helpful that things from the old world are so useful in the new one having been one of the few things I’ve memorised without the book:
*Increases agility stat 200%, Art and Ability costs reduced by 30% + Kaha and Lùth rate of recovery +50% per can*
Don’t mind if I do! not like I may not make it out of here after all I thought to myself. Lucy threw out a durability potion to Rhua and gave me a rejuver juice to try mend my arm. Broekslang returned with an exceptionally high tier spell damage potion and three high tier Art and Ability damage boosting potions and insisted we use them.
“Our arts is nothing compared to your lot, drink them all” he said.
The effects of the potions I already took now kicking in, I launched the third potion to Rhua who quickly drank it and was brimming with energy again. Lucy having taken such an array of potions was shaking mad and wasted no time in unleashing five spells in one swift action, having noted that the creature appeared to be holy elemental, she put all of her focus to this particular type, unleashing vicious dark art, the blackened blades of wind and blood spikes that ravaged the creature caused it speak with fear for the first time.
‘Blech’ it appeared to vomit whilst still paralyzed.
“Filthy Dark arts, that h-h-hurt!”
She used her rescue art on the Von family and had them channel art into hers. Horace now tanked up to the ceiling on potions seemed to be on a different level and began trying to synthesise multiple different things at super speed. I of course had already joined Rhua in the fight and was punching and kicking the damn thing. I may not get any benefits for the Art and Ability enhancements, but this thing is getting smashed damn quick I’m probably hitting this thing as often as Wardi does at full speed! I thought.
The creature seemed to be getting weaker finally after a small bombardment of attacks, it moaned more as the hits landed. Horace having cooked up a particularly foul-smelling concoction implored us to get the hell out of there as a shell almost half the size of my entire body suddenly smacked straight into the creature and quickly began dissolving and spraying out highly concentrated acid causing the creature to scream at such intensity you almost want to take it out to pasture.
It’s body melting away quickly, the creature seemed to be trying to maintain its integrity by separating itself from the main body. The head detached itself and a tendril wrapped itself around the opposite staircase and it appeared to be heading towards the cellar. Rhua took no chances and used a binding ability, attempting to stop it. The more we hurt it, the more it became desperate to fight back it seemed and was suddenly overpowering and pulling her along despite its miniscule size.
“I think it used an ability; I can barely contain it unlike before” Rhua said straining her voice trying to maintain her focus. It surprised all of us when it separated yet again only this time heading to the ceiling and quickly slamming back down to the floor causing a collapse where it broke through.
“I think it’s going to consume the shards in the cellar!” I shouted. Lucy and the Von family casted a spell that caused the floor to collapse in its entirety and keep bursting through, a spell of that calibre probably broke through the barrier I thought to myself. It also brought up so much dust we could not see more than a few inches from our faces which was never a good thing in the middle of a fight.
The silence became overwhelming, tense and anxiety inducing as we waited for the dust to settle and give us a moment to compose ourselves. Particularly now that the item effects were wearing off and the kickback started happening. Causing myself, Lucy, and Horace to drop to the floor with fatigue, Rhua held herself up by her shield dug deep in what floor she could reach, but she was panting deep and took off her helmet out of necessity from the heat build-up from fighting.
“I do not think you have won just yet” said Frigibits. “I still sense a presence below us we should try to retreat, perhaps by now the guild may have started making its way here, they have far more capable fighters there”
“No, mama, look out the window” Rella her voice shaking with fear said. Looking out at the barrier was back and now the swirling with many distinct colours of the elements. “shit” I said aloud.
“Watch your language kid” said a weak voice “you’re back with us I take it man? “Just about, whatever you did seemed to cause the effect to disappear, I’m useless though, it’s left me heavily weakened. Lucy and Horace used some group wide healing arts and enhancing shells to perk us up once more, at least enough to make a dash for safety if we could.
Upon this happening, a large translucent hand rose up from the cellar, followed by another which slammed into the staircase. Very many, heavily spiked tendrils now shot up into the air, smashing through the ceiling and roof, and slowly the creature reappeared only this time, much bigger, more menacing and with not just but one head but four. Rhua once again enhanced herself ready for a fight but seeing that there was no longer a floor realised fighting would be pointless as only Horace and Lucy were capable of fighting things not at ground level now.
“RUN!” she shouted but not before darting over to Wardi picking him up to jump back and Lucy aiding her with a wind art.
