Chapter Twenty-Four
Alex stayed in the real world for a few days, mostly so she could scribe her in-game notes, as much as she could remember, into a notebook she’d purchased while they were in the second ward. She didn't know if it would help, given that she spent all her time in game, but she took the hint from the walls of scribbles in one of the rooms and the handwritten spell book she'd found.
The rest of the group had disappeared back into the game the next morning, leaving Alex in an empty house. She wished someone might have stayed, as she'd enjoyed talking with her classmates—even Lily.
She tried calling her mom a few more times while she was out, but never made the connection. Eventually Alex realized she was delaying returning to Gamemakers Online because she knew her next task was to slay the Ghostly Cobrawasp.
It was afternoon when she returned, which meant her minions were in their nests, plump from hunting during the night. Axo was nowhere to be found, but there was an offering of crickets on the log by the nests.
Alex got right to work, using her jagged bone knife and ability to make endless ropes to create the right tools for hunting the elusive cobrawasp.
The next day, before she left, Alex smeared berry ink beneath her eyes as war paint. She was tired from staying up all night working, but once she got moving, the exhaustion slipped away.
As she hiked into the center of the forest, she kept her minions in a tight halo around her with instructions to scan constantly. Until she could get set up, she was at her most vulnerable.
After a few hours of searching, Alex found the right area. A tall tree had fallen over, landing in the upper branches of another. The long slope was at the perfect angle for her plan, though her initial climb proved it was too unstable.
She had to spend the next hour fitting supporting logs beneath it and lashing them into place. The structure wouldn't survive any significant impact, but it would stay in place long enough for her to kill the cobrawasp.
Alex climbed the sloped tree without her ascending rope, getting into the upper branches of the second tree. She pulled ropes and nets from her Handysack, thankful that multiple items of the same kind could stack, and started the lengthy process of hanging them in the surrounding trees.
The whole time she worked the spot between her shoulder blades itched. The Ghostly Cobrawasp had a bad habit of showing up directly behind her, putting her at an immediate tactical disadvantage.
Alex hoped that her precautions would eliminate the cobrawasp's advantage of surprise. She worked through the day until the shadows in the forest lengthened.
Before she lost the sunlight, Alex climbed the second tree into the high canopy. Because the area was on a hill, it rose above the rest of the Warped Forest, giving her a better view of what remained.
As she stuck her head above the leaves, Alex had a moment of vertigo when the wind blew and her perch swayed precipitously. Clutching the thin branches gave respite, and the breeze eventually passed, leaving her more stable.
Behind her, towards the chasm and the Plains of Warsong, faint lines of smoke trailed into the sky, suggesting camps of intelligent beings. While Bucket and Martina had warned her away from that zone, it would be nice to talk to other people, even if they were NPCs. Bucket's story about spending the night drinking and singing bawdy songs with his pirates had been appealing to her.
Past the Plains and high in the air, Alex caught a shimmer of movement again, but when she tried to examine it, she saw empty sky.
Alex turned towards the backside of the Warped Forest. The trees sloped down towards a hollow against the mountains, growing more colorful until they were a rainbow riot covered in a soap bubble shimmer.
At the center of this chaotic mass of color was a single white spire, a sharp extended peak that looked like a pale stalagmite sticking from the ground. From a distance it looked small, but given the scale of the backdrop, Alex assumed the spire had to be as wide as a small stadium.
The region around the spire shifted as if it couldn't decide what color it needed to be. The effect made it difficult to look at, and Alex had to squeeze her eyes shut a few times to ward away the dizziness.
Quest Offered: Investigate the heart of the Warped Forest (+25,000 XP) [Y/N]
From her airy perch, Alex accepted the quest, then when she'd seen all she could see, she descended through the trees, stopping at the top of the angled slope. The light from the setting sun cut through the forest at an angle, leaving sideways parallel rays of light.
Though she could feel her minions hovering above her, Alex glanced up as Pinky sent a warning cry. The Ghostly Cobrawasp appeared above Pinky, driving a stinger into its furry brown body.
But Pinky's new ability, Reactionary Armor, kicked in, making her minion temporarily invulnerable.
While the cobrawasp hovered above Pinky, Alex shot her enemy with Cloud Taunt. Gray clouds snaked through with electricity flew from her fingers, surrounding the cobrawasp.
The winged creature shot towards Alex, but paused high above her, out of reach of her whip. Its shimmering black hood rippled as it made midair adjustments because of the various nets hanging in the trees. Its tail snapped like a cat, clearly agitated.
"Come on, you stupid snake," she said with her hand on the nearest net rope.
It hovered between the trees, providing her with her first good look of her enemy. Its belly was gray, with a silvery edge that bordered its black back. Shimmering wings buzzed ominously, making minute adjustments like an energetic hummingbird. The long glistening black stinger made her chest ache with the memory of it piercing her flesh when it'd killed her in the past.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
When the cobrawasp realized it couldn't make a direct attack, its neck expanded and its head reared back. Right when the snake-head shot its venom towards her, Alex expanded a shield she'd made with one of her tigersloth furs by stretching it over a frame of wood.
The rotting venom has destroyed the Tigersloth Shield!
Alex threw the protective device away. It'd done its job. Now she had to hope that the cobrawasp couldn't spit its venom again.
Before the cobrawasp could dart towards her, Alex ran down the tree slope to a pull rope and yanked it, releasing a hail of wooden darts and filling up her view with messages.
The wooden dart deals the Ghostly Cobrawasp 4 damage!
The wooden dart deals the Ghostly Cobrawasp 3 damage!
The wooden dart misses the Ghostly Cobrawasp!
The trap didn't deal much damage, but it had the effect she wanted, as the cobrawasp made a wide circling attack to avoid the possibility of more darts.
She'd hoped to get a proc off the Shocking Strangler before she had to move again. Alex stowed her whip on her hip, grabbed a descending rope, and made a rapid journey to the forest floor.
As she landed in a pile of leaves, Inky shot her a warning, so she threw herself to the left, rolling away from the cobrawasp, which had somehow beat her down.
The Ghostly Cobrawasp misses you!
The huge stinger impaled the ground right where she'd been standing. The cobrawasp made an angry buzzing sound in frustration.
Alex threw a Dewdrop Orb in hopes of distracting it, but the spell fizzled, forcing her to retreat. The cobrawasp flew after her, filling the air with an angry buzzing.
She escaped behind a tree as the flying insect-snake tried to impale her. One hit and she'd be dead. Alex couldn't fight the creature head-on, but the cobrawasp's unexpected speed had forced her away from the main traps.
Dodging around the trunk as the cobrawasp circled was driving her fatigue bar up quickly. She couldn't outlast it, so Alex called in Clyde.
Without regard to its safety, her minion shot in, thrusting its daggerlike proboscis into the cobrawasp's unprotected back.
Clyde assassinates the Ghostly Cobrawasp for 56 damage!
She had no illusions that the strike would kill her enemy, but the attack did what she hoped. The cobrawasp turned on Clyde.
"Go! Fly away!"
The cobrawasp hesitated, so she shot it successfully with another Cloud Taunt as she ran back towards her trap. The cobrawasp shot after her, but Alex ducked under the sloped tree before it could reach her.
She yanked on her ropes, launching a weighted net towards the cobrawasp and capturing it beneath its weight. The creature strained against the ropes.
Alex approached with her whip in her hand, ready to finish off her antagonist. But before she could send in her minions to drain the cobrawasp, it turned incorporeal, its shiny black body turning misty gray. Once the creature finished changing, it shifted through the ropes as if they didn't exist.
"Oh, no," said Alex as it rose into the air, then hovering in place, shifted to solid.
Doubt crashed through her, filling her with trembling frustration.
"How the hell am I going to kill this thing?"
The cobrawasp shot at her, forcing her to flee beneath the fallen tree. She was able to use the tree's bulk to keep it away from her, but she knew her death was inevitable. She was out of tricks and the cobrawasp was immune to her nets.
"Come on, Alex, think of something," she said, ducking back under the angled tree. "It's got to have a weakness."
One of the tricks that had sometimes worked for her was to figure out how to turn an enemy's strength against them. But how do you turn the ability to go incorporeal and escape any trap into a negative?
When the idea formed in her head, she knew the chance of it working was slim, but she had no alternatives.
Rather than running around the base of the sloped tree again, Alex darted towards the A-frame structured support logs that she'd lashed into place.
The cobrawasp flew after her, but seemly cautious of a trap, made a wide angle of attack.
This brief respite gave her enough time to pull out her jagged bone knife and saw one of the supporting ropes. She had it halfway cut before the cobrawasp reached her.
There was no way she was going to evade it while cutting the ropes, so she sent in her minions to harass the cobrawasp. The three bloats circled the much larger insect like gnats, flying in to force a reaction before slipping out of the way.
Alex managed to cut enough ropes that a good nudge would knock the supporting logs away.
Grabbing a net from her Handysack, Alex waited until the cobrawasp flew low so she could throw it. The awkward toss caught the flying creature, but the net wasn't weighted, nor large enough to hold it.
Once again, the Ghostly Cobrawasp proved its namesake and turned incorporeal. Like a cloak slipping off its shoulders, the net fell through the flying creature to land unceremoniously in the leaves.
While the cobrawasp shed the net, Alex wrapped her whip around the supporting log. As soon as the Ghostly Cobrawasp reappeared, Alex yanked her whip, pulling the supporting log out of place.
With all the jostling, the angled log had become unbalanced, and it immediately shifted, breaking from its cradle. The Ghostly Cobrawasp, which could not move during its transformation, shifted back to solid in time for the massive log to fall on top of it.
The fallen log hits the Ghostly Cobrawasp for 398 damage!
To her dismay, the log didn't kill the cobrawasp. Trapped beneath its bulk, it flexed its wings. The cobra head strained to lift so it could spit at her, but the angle was all wrong. Then it appeared the cobrawasp looked like it was preparing to turn incorporeal again.
"Inky, quick!"
As her minion reached her, Alex cast Transference on the Ghostly Cobrawasp. Faint lines and nodes appeared between them, with eleven nodes on her enemy and seven on Inky.
As the first edges of the cobrawasp turned misty gray, Alex's stomach twisted. If she didn't solve the problem quickly, she was doomed. Her faez bar was empty, her fatigue was almost full, and she had no more ideas.
In a rush, Alex reached out, thinking to solve the problem on the fly, but pulled her hand back when she realized her initial understanding was wrong.
Ignoring that her enemy was almost fully incorporeal and preparing to shift though the log to kill her, Alex pictured the various possibilities of the solution much as she did when she solved a Rubik Cube. Taking notes both in and out of game had allowed her to make subconscious connections she hadn't realized before.
As the Ghostly Cobrawasp lifted into the air, Alex zipped her fingers along the faint lines and nodes, connecting them until the pattern lit up like a Christmas parade.
You have killed a Ghostly Cobrawasp!
You have gained experience: 2,000 XP
Quest Completed: Get revenge on the Ghostly Cobrawasp
You have gained experience: 10,000 XP
Special Achievement Reached: You have gotten revenge on a creature that's killed you more than ten times!
You have gained bonus experience: 50,000 XP
You have gained a skill point: +1 Transference
You have gained a unique skill point: +1 Cunning Strategist
Inky has gained the Ghosting skill!
You have reached level 6!
Alex collapsed onto the forest floor. Her minions hovered around her as the last rays of daylight slipped away.
Exhausted and trembling from the adrenaline from the battle, she looted the body so they could return to camp.
You have received: Large Chimeric Stone
Her minions bounced excitedly as if they understood the significance of the battle as much as she did. If she could have had a bottle of champagne, she would have popped the cork and dumped it over her head like sports ball teams did when they won the championship.
"Come on," said Alex, gathering her gear for the hike back. "Let's celebrate back in camp with a nice hunk of charred sloth meat."
