Intimancer

“Not funny Lilie.”  Rick groaned from his spot on the floor.

“Gave me a chuckle.”  Tyr said from beside him.

Sade just rolled her eyes at her lovers’ antics.  “You two are incorrigible.”

The elf proudly tapped her hand to her chest.  “I don’t even know the meaning of the word.”

“Figured.”  Rick sighed and shook his head in exasperation.  “It means you’re unable to change in any way.”

Lilie chuckled at that as she bent down and examined Sade’s condition.  “That is certainly one way to describe an elf.”  She let her magic do its thing.  “Well then.  The good news is that nothing’s broken.  Your arm just got sprained a little, an easy fix.”

Sade gave a sigh of relief when the healing spell seeped into her battered and bruised arm.  She gave it a shake or two once the shaytoni was finished to test its range of motion.  “As skilled as ever.  Thank you darling.”

“Darling?”  Lilie asked with one brow arched.

Sade smiled and kissed her lovely healer on the tip of her pale nose.  “Just a little something to remind us all that I love you.  Do you like it?”

Lilie’s face flushed a deep crimson.  She quickly stood back up and faced away from the group, her actions speaking far more than words could ever express.

Rick leaned in close to Sade.  “You are dangerous, you know that?”

“Yes.  Yes I do.”  She preened at the compliment.

They looked up to see Daniela dashing back into view.  She skidded to a halt and scanned the area with her sword drawn.  “I heard fighting, what happened?”

Tyr pointed towards the monster corpse.  “Had a sneaky git pay us a visit.”

The thief looked at where Tyr was pointing.  “Where the fuck did that thing come from?”

Sade groaned as she stood up and dusted herself off.  “It was hidden inside the tunnel wall over there.  Not even Tyr sensed it until it was already upon us.”

“Shit!  I’m sorry about that.”  Daniela said, her shoulders slumping in defeat.

“Hey, she just said that it snuck up on us, no need to beat yourself up over it.”  Rick said reassuringly.  “Actually, I think it's about time for a quick break, were there any good spots to rest up ahead?”

The thief looked momentarily thrown by the sudden change of subject, but quickly recovered.  “Come to think of it, I believe I have.  Sígueme.”

She led the group down a series of tunnels until they ended up in a fairly spacious side area that had only one way in or out.  Rick felt more than a little apprehensive about being in a position with no escape, but the thief insisted that she knew what she was doing.

Once they were all settled, Daniela trotted over to the opening.  She looked left and right, checking to make sure that the coast was clear, before pulling small metal disks out of her pocket and placing them to either side of the entrance.  Rick could feel a thrum of energy pulse through the area, a feeling like TV static behind the eyes that he had come to learn was his body sensing a massive draw of the ambient mana around him.

“Are those little things enchanted?”  He asked.

“Huh? Oh… uh si, no, tal vez?  It’s kinda hard to explain.”  She replied.

“Those are wards.”

“Eh?”  Rick eloquently asked, turning to face the rest of the group.

Sade’s eyes were shining with delight and intellectual curiosity.  “Those are portable wards.  I heard the concept was being researched, but I had no idea they had already been produced.”  The gleam in her eyes dimmed and she cocked her head to the side.  “But how did you acquire them?”

Daniela idly scratched her cheek and refused to meet Sade’s gaze.  “Well… heh… that’s kinda a funny story.”

Rick sighed.  “You stole them, didn’t you?”

“Hey!”  She retorted.  “They were made by mi familia, and I just borrowed them… without permission.”  When she saw the dirty looks she was getting she quickly threw out her arms and added.  “Espera, espera, espera!  Before you all get mad, they had a ton of these things just lying around collecting dust.  I also only took the simplest ones with me so I could practice with them, okay?”

“Practice?  How?”  Sade asked, her tone flat.

Daniela took a deep breath to calm down and straightened out her clothes.  “Best way to learn how to bypass wards is to learn how to set them up in the first place.”  She jerked her thumb at the small metal disk set into the wall.  “These are enchanted to set up an illusion barrier and to warn when something gets too close, real simple stuff.  I could set it all up myself in an hour or two the more traditional way.”

“Alright, I’m confused.”  Rick said.  “What exactly are wards, and why is their portability such a big deal?”

“Oh!  I can answer that one!”  Lilie said excitedly.  “Wards are an odd branch of enchanting.  This is because they have a very specific use, and because they don’t have to be imbued into an item to work.”

“So… what, they sorta enchant an area instead?”  He asked.

“Essentially, yes.”  Sade confirmed.  “The biggest drawback to casting a ward is the considerable amount of time needed to set one up.  Being able to cast even the most basic ward in two hours is a considerable achievement.”  She said, looking to Daniela with an appreciative gaze.  “The other major issue is one of portability.  Since it is the general area that has the enchantment, the ward can not be moved once placed.”

Rick looked at those unassuming metal disks in a new light.  “Then those things right there are pretty amazing.  But what’s the catch?”

Daniela’s smirk returned to her face and she sat down to join the rest of the group.  “The problemas with them is they cost a lot to make, degrade quickly, and suck up all the nearby magic.”  She waved her hands to gesture to the area around them.  “This place is pretty dense, so the wards will last about an hour or so.”

“Some hefty drawbacks, but still pretty useful all things considered.”  Lilie observed.

“Indeed.”  Sade said with a nod of her head.  “I would love to sit down and discuss the intricacies of how they are made.”

“After we’re out of here and safe?”  Tyr asked, a knowing smirk twisting her lips.

“After we are out and safe.”  Sade promised with a chuckle.

They spent the next few minutes simply relaxing and having a shared meal of bread and jerky, then washing it all down with water.  It wasn’t the most luxurious of meals, but it was the best they could do given the circumstances.  Rick hardly minded.  Good company could make even the blandest of food taste good, and the women around him were most certainly the best company he could have asked for.

Once they were fed, watered, and had caught their breath from their last encounter, Daniela removed the portable wards and the party once more resumed their journey.  While still slow going, their pace picked up considerably once their tactics for dealing with the myriad of threats became more solidified.

Daniela took her scouting duties very seriously.  After the ambush, she had started to pay even more attention to any strange formations or cracks in the tunnel walls.  Tyr stayed as the rearguard, a position that paid off when another swarm of giant rats burst in from an adjacent tunnel shortly after the group passed by.  Her timely warning allowed everyone enough time to get into position and ambush the ambushers.

Lilie and Sade were still doing their jobs as an iron wall and magical artillery respectively.  Lilie would pick the biggest and baddest enemy she could find and simply get in its way, blocking punishing hits with her sturdy shield and countering with quick swipes of her sword that forced her opponent to either back off or get disabled.  For swarms of enemies, she would merely step back and guard the front while Sade did what she did best, overwhelming firepower.

The human mage was still holding back considerably in their engagements, doing her best not to cause the whole mountain range to come down upon them because of a careless spell.  But even with such restrictions, she was still a one woman army with waves after waves of magical missiles and bolts crashing down upon their foes.

While Rick wasn’t an expert in any of these various fields, his help was still invaluable during all the fighting.  While he had no real specialization, what he did have was intimate knowledge of everyone’s preferred fighting styles.  While Lilie was engaged with a large monster, Rick would focus on any enemies that would slip past her or even join in and keep the pressure on the big bad.  If enemies came in from the rear, he would funnel the chaff into Tyr’s waiting axes.  Sometimes, like their first encounter with the zombie-shrooms, he would join in and lend his magic into pounding their foes from a distance with Sade.  All in all, he felt like he was finally starting to find his own niche to occupy.

A few hours later, and finally getting close to their destination, Daniela called the group to a halt.  “I can’t explain why, but something up ahead just feels wrong.”  She said.

“How so?”  Sade asked.

“How the fuck should I know?  I’m a damned dwarf, I’m meant to be sailing the seas, not stomping around in these túnels under a mountain!”

Rick did his best to suppress a smirk.  Once more, Parva had proven to buck certain fantasy tropes he had come to rely on.  Now that she had pointed it out, he did notice that the further away from the coast they went, the fewer dwarves were found living there.  He would love to sit down and discuss the cultural reasons for why that was after they got home.  But for the moment, they had a problem to solve.

“I say we move forward.”  Tyr grumbled.  “I’m just as tired of being trapped down here as ya are.  We’ll keep alert, same as always, and deal with whatever nasty thing comes our way.”

Sade pursed her lips, but didn’t contradict the large woman.  By all estimates, they had spent nearly a full day fighting their way to the end of the mines.  They were all tired, sore, and missing the light and warmth of the sun terribly.  Rick readied his spear and gave the rest of the group a nod.

“Let’s finish this.”  He declared.

They continued forward, Daniela crouched low beside Lilie to get a closer look at anything suspicious before it hit their vulnerable backline.  When the light from Rick’s lantern spell illuminated the suspicious spot in question, he couldn’t argue with their rogue’s assessment.

“Stalactites?  In a mine?”

“Is that what those things are called?”  Daniela asked.  “I just thought stone spikes hanging from the ceiling was an odd design choice.”

Tyr snorted at the comment.  Rick himself was honestly unsure if she was being genuine or sarcastic.  Her husky latin-like accent and her odd sense of humor often made it difficult to tell the difference.  He often thought Daniela sounded like Selma Hayek, if the actress had a penchant for cursing like a sailor when bored or drunk.

“It is quite odd, I suggest we avoid standing under them while we head to the breach.”  Sade suggested.

“I second that notion.”  Rick said.  He’d played enough video games to know that stalactites were always a hazard to be avoided.

The dwarf looked up to the ceiling and then plotted a course that would take them through the potential death trap.  The rest of the group carefully followed in her nimble footsteps, those with shields holding them above their heads just in case.  It was slow going, but the end soon came into sight.

None of the party noticed a slender shape stealthily sneaking behind them.

Without warning, Tyr felt something wrap around her arm and start to tug.  She roared in fury, grabbed the slimy appendage holding her, and yanked back with all her prodigious strength.  There was a sound like tearing fabric as the rock colored tentacle suddenly went limp.  Unfortunately, ten more fleshy ropes took its place and came after her.

Rick saw the confusion on his large lover’s face as she reached for the axes at her belt, only for the arm still bound in the unknown monster’s limb fumbling around her weapon’s handle.  Her good axe only managed to get one solid swing before it too was wrapped up alongside her legs and torso.  Her weapon clattered to the ground as the strength was sapped away by whatever poison or magic the tentacles employed to subdue their prey.

“Tyr!”  Rick screamed as he ran forward to help the fierce mother of his child.  He swung the bladed edge of his spear at the nearest limb, hoping to cut through the rubbery flesh and free their ranger from the monster's clutches.  His weapon passed through with only minor difficulty and the tentacle flung backward like a snapped rope under too much tension.

“A-above!”  Tyr rasped out, barely heard over his own heaving breaths.

He instinctively dove to the side and rolled, just as one of the stalactites crashed down right where he previously stood.  The rocky spike hissed in disappointment at being unable to impale its prey.  Rick recoiled in horror as a fleshy pink body oozed out of the hollow cavity of the fallen stone and began to crawl towards him, the stalactite dragging behind it like a shell of a hermit crab.

He stabbed the monstrosity right between the glowing green eyes with his spear.  There was no way he was going to let that thing get close.  “The stalactites are monsters!  Don’t let them fall on you!”  He shouted out at the top of his lungs.  “Also, those tentacles have some sort of paralyzing effect on them, so be careful!”

Rick looked around for Tyr and nearly screamed.  While he was distracted with the other monster, his elven lover had slowly been dragged closer to a stone pillar that seemed to be the source of all the tentacles.  A section of the rock lifted away, revealing a slitted eyeball glaring balefully down at its struggling captive.

“Chingar a tu madre!”  Daniela cursed before her sword sliced through one of the tentacles holding on to Tyr’s legs.

“Yeah!  Fuck you, asshole!”  Came Lilie as her sword finished the job in freeing her friend.  Both women reached down and did their best to haul the elf’s bulk away.  Rick rushed forward to help, careful not to touch the severed monster parts still clinging to Tyr’s body.

All three of them looked up to see a horizontal crack split just below the cyclopean eye, then grow wider and wider.  Soon a cavernous mouth filled with rows of razor sharp teeth yawned wide before them.  The terrifying maw was so large that it nearly split the rocky pillar of its body in half.  The thing screeched in rage, and another swarm of tentacles poured out from its body, aiming to ensnare the whole group in its foul grip.

Rick and the gang were forced to unceremoniously drop Tyr, who let out a weak grunt of surprise as she hit the ground.  They drew their weapons and furiously hacked away at any monstrous limb within reach.  Chunks of monster meat fell all around them, writhing around at their feet in an unsettling display of carnage.

“You keep your disgusting hands away from her!”  Sade roared.

The furious mage dashed inside the monster’s reach and held up her hand directly in front of the gaping maw.  A jet of flame, so hot that Rick could feel his face burning from the other side of the cavern, poured down the monster’s gullet like a molten waterfall.  The tentacles attacking the group started to flail around wildly as the monster was being cooked from the inside out by Sade’s fury.

The thing let out an ear piercing shriek that forced everyone to their knees with its intensity.  The noise and flailing limbs caused all the remaining stalactite monsters to be thrown from their perch and plummet to the floor below.  Rick saw that Sade was too stunned from receiving the monster’s sonic attack at point blank to notice the cluster of earthen spikes right above her.

A small figure collided with Sade, pushing them both away from the falling debris.  Daniela did her best to help Sade off the floor, but then a loud crack echoed throughout the tunnel.  Below them, a fissure formed, then another, and then the whole floor underneath where they stood split into pieces and started to fall away into the newly formed chasm.

“What, no!  Get out of there!  The whole place is going to collapse!”  Rick screamed, but it was too late.

With an earth shattering crunch, the floor beneath the two women disappeared, and they began to fall into the yawning abyss.

“No… Sade!  SADE!”  Rick cried, as the beautiful mage he loved plummeted away from him and was swallowed up completely by darkness.