Mage Tank

The creature’s dozens of centipede-like under-legs scraped and clawed at my midsection. They weren’t able to pierce my skin, but felt like they would leave large welts behind when they were done. While they couldn’t break my skin on their own, several worked their way into the wounds along my gut from Hognay’s claws and began digging into the exposed flesh within. The hand-length, hard-tipped appendages tried to pry open my stomach, more agonizing than the claws that had first carved the gashes.

When the first of the bug-like legs dug into my belly, the c’thon froze for a second from my stun ability, and I was able to reach around the tentacle and yank my daggers from the hilts I had attached to my belt. I began stabbing down on the feeler frantically, but it was like stabbing hard rubber wrapped in steel. The daggers bounced off of the c’thon’s skin, barely leaving a scratch behind.

“Grotto!” I yelled. “If you’re going to do something this is the time!”

I squirmed in the tentacle’s grasp and looked for the others, even as my health bar ticked down in small chunks with each piercing stab.

Wounded: Bleeding 32/hour

Health: 102/221

Wounded: Bleeding 34/hour

Health: 100/221

Wounded: Bleeding 36/hour

Health: 98/221

[Believe me when I say that the excruciating doom of my foes is one of my primary functions! Steel your delicate mortal mind and body, and prepare to witness my ire!]

Varrin was wrapped up by two other tentacles. His armor was covered in scores and scrapes, his pauldrons had been torn away, and I could see blood running down his legs. Xim had climbed up onto the limbs constricting him and was pumping a series of heals into his neck, golden light flashing down her arm every second. As I watched, another arm of the c’thon whipped across the room and slammed into Xim, sending her hurtling into a wall twenty feet away.

I went back to stabbing at the tentacle holding me. If I could just get through the skin…

“When?!” I said. “When will we see your ire?!”

[Just… give me a second. It’s been awhile and my functions are not fully integrated yet.]

“We don’t have a second!”

I gave up one of the daggers and used the last of my mana to cast Oblivion Orb on the feeler. The monster didn’t even flinch at having a piece of the leg removed, but I used the same technique the c’thon was using on my gut and slammed the dagger down into the exposed muscle. It sank in this time, though only about a third of the way. I yanked the blade out and reared back, holding the grip in both hands with one on the back of the pommel, then drove it down with all the force I could muster. It went in up to the hilt and the monster let out a deep grunt.

The limb whipped around and the world spun, my head swimming from the sudden acceleration. It let me loose and chucked me into a stone wall. I felt, as much as heard, a loud crack when the back of my skull smashed into the rock, and the world went silent. Then, as though it had a will of its own, the ground came up and smashed me in the face. I assumed that I had fallen, but I’d left my vestibular senses back up on the wall.

I rolled and tried to get back upright, but had no concept of up or down, so I collapsed back to the ground from all fours. I took a deep breath, distantly aware of the alarming amount of blood running down my face from the back of my head, and fought to get back up onto my hands and knees. I looked up and squinted through blurred double-vision, incapable of making anything out beyond a squirming blob that the c’thon had become. Sound slowly returned, and I could hear Varrin screaming along with the squeal of twisting metal.

[The power you wield is not your own, foul beast! Be smited by my radiance and know that I am the end!]

My vision started to clear and I saw glyphs along the full length of the obelisk light up. Twisting blue veins sprouted across the c’thon’s body, then burst open. Thin streams of vibrant blue-white energy began flooding back to the dark pillar. The beast let out a screech loud enough to make the floor vibrate and tossed Varrin to the ground. It spun back around to the obelisk and its dark, beady eyes shot over it. More and more of the liquid energy was pulled from its body and into the obelisk.

[Tremble in my wake, for I am the true ruler of this realm! Let thy flesh burn to ash and be consumed by me! Wait, wait, no… don’t do that! Stop!]

The c’thon wrapped all eight of its tentacles around the obelisk, then started thrashing violently and fissures spiderwebbed out along the base of the obelisk where it had already been damaged. Grotto spun and his runes flared as the recess holding him began to crumble.

[Insolence! Are your sins not yet grave enough? You defy even the will of the masters?!]

There was a loud snap and the base of the pillar broke. The c’thon heaved against the obelisk and sent it smashing to the ground, crushing piles of bones that shattered and shot splintered fragments through the air. A cloud of dust kicked up from the impact, swirling as the c’thon’s limbs flowed through it. The c’thon reached out with its tentacles toward Grotto, but he zipped up into the air and began darting away.

“Fuck,” I said. “Was that it Grotto? That was your big play?!”

[Your lack of faith is disturbing!] Grotto’s thoughts came in anxious bursts as he dodged another lashing feeler. [I have taken back some of the mana it stole and this impudent cur has been substantially weakened. I have already initiated phase two and the c’thon’s destruction of the obelisk will not interrupt it!]

“How long until phase two?!”

[Though I am possessed of great intellect and foresight I-,] Grotto wove between two more tentacles, [I cannot say for certain! A minute? Two, maybe? No more than three!]

Three minutes. There was no way. We’d barely been fighting for three minutes and Varrin was in a heap, Xim was struggling to get to her feet, and I was completely out of mana. I glanced down at my bars, hoping they didn’t look as bad as I felt.

Curse: Weakness 20%

Curse: Blindness 10%

Wounded: Bleeding 40/hour

Poisoned: Toxicity 3/hour

Health: 42/221

Stamina: 125/132

Mana: 0/40

So this is what being three-quarters dead felt like. If my health regen wasn’t so huge, I’d keel over in an hour from status effects even if the c’thon ignored me. As it was, one more big hit and I was toast.

Xim made her way to Varrin while the c’thon chased Grotto like a cat after a laser-pointer. I watched her put two more heals into the big guy, then she turned and faced the c’thon.

She was about to pull out her trump card, but I had no idea if it would be enough.

A beam of crimson light tore down from above Xim, smashing through the cloud of poison essences. The emerald whirlpool had already begun to lose cohesion when the obelisk had tumbled, but now the essences crashed into one another within the cloud, creating a falling rain of shattered green crystal. The room began to fill with a thick new cloud of poison.

The light enveloped Xim, and her body began to grow. Fur sprouted from her, the same light red of her skin, and a single jagged black horn split her forehead and rose out of it. Her chainmail plinked and shot links around the room and her padded robes ripped open when her torso grew too large for it, revealing a darkly stained bodysuit that stretched as she transformed. She emerged from the ruined armor as a hulking figure nearly eight feet tall.

Xim launched at the c’thon. It was still distracted by Grotto and she blindsided it with a demonic shoulder-tackle, then gouged its side with her wicked horn. The c’thon wrapped her up with its tentacles and body slammed her into the wall, which cracked and shed chunks of rock. Xim bit down on a feeler, taking out a huge mouthful of yanagidako, which is distinct from calamari since calamari is squid.

Xim tore two of the tentacles away from her body and pushed them aside, then threw a series of punches at the c’thon’s giant head that landed with deep thunks. I got to my feet and stumbled over to Varrin, moving along the edge of the room to keep as far from the fight as I could. Varrin was sitting up, and I helped him to move back to the wall where he sagged against it. His breathing was heavy and rasping.

“How long did she say that would last?” Varrin asked.

“A minute,” I said, looking down at his torso. The armor was crushed, constricting his chest and stomach. “We need to get that armor off of you.”

“Good luck. May need a pry bar.” He took in a ragged breath and something caught in his throat, sending him into a shallow coughing fit. “Might be the only thing keeping me in one piece,” he choked out.

The c’thon lifted Xim up and rammed her into the stone wall again with a loud crash, then released her and floated back. It turned its underside up towards her and let out a huge spray of black ink that hissed and sizzled where it landed. Some of Xim’s fur dissolved under the corrosive substance, but she curled her body and held up her arms to keep the spray off her face.

When she recovered she looked even more pissed, letting out a deep roar and rushing at the c’thon again. Xim swung hard into its center while the c’thon whipped her with its tentacles. She bit away pieces of the beast’s limbs and sent severed centipedal underlegs scattering to the ground while more raked against her skin. She gouged new wounds all over the monster with her horn as the beast shoved her back into the wall. Xim was doing work, but the c’thon looked a long way from finished.

I opened my inventory screen and pulled out a ruby chip. I held it up and raised an eyebrow at Varrin.

“My attacks use stamina,” he said. “And I’m out. That won’t help me. Plus, it would probably finish me off.”

“Guess it’ll be up to me then.”

“I don’t know what you can do to that creature, even with full mana.”

[He can serve the grand function of keeping it busy until more effective assistance arrives.]

I jumped, realizing Grotto was hovering right next to my head.

“Fuck, man. You gotta signal your approach or something.”

[Why? I am an entity that thrives when hidden. It is my nature to be surreptitious.]

“What if we fled?” said Varrin. “We can regroup and heal, then come at this thing again later. It may be easier now that Hognay’s dead.”

I glanced over at the stealer of organs, various and sundry. He was still face down on the ground and it didn’t look like he was breathing.

[Doubtful. The c’thon’s body is highly mobile and flexible. It can fit through spaces much smaller than itself. You will be chased down and flogged until your death. Then it will feast upon your corpses.]

“That wouldn’t be good for getting your Delve back to working, eh?” I said.

[Oh, that is impossible now.]

“The fuck do you mean?”

[The obelisk has been destroyed and much of the power I was able to recover from the c’thon has been expended on summoning our aid. There is no longer an effective method to synthesize materials for its repair within this Delve.]

“Does that mean we failed?” said Varrin. “We’re already doomed?”

Grotto’s runes twinkled.

[Perhaps. What was the wording of your quest?]

I brought up the notification and read it aloud, “This Delve’s accumulation has been interrupted. Find and eliminate the cause of the disruption to clear the Delve.”

[It does not say that you must repair the Delve.]

“Shit,” I said, “that c’thon is the cause of the disruption, so as long as we ‘eliminate’ it we’re good.”

[Maybe. The System’s logic can sometimes be… opaque.]

“You’re in charge here, Grotto! You can’t tell us?”

[I manage the Delve itself, but I am as beholden to the System as you are.]

“We don’t have time for this,” said Varrin. “Eat that mana chip if you’re going to. You’ll need a few seconds for it to take effect and Xim isn’t looking great.”

I scowled at Grotto, then tossed the ruby chip into my mouth, biting down on it as I turned to check on Xim’s fight. She was on the ground, her entire body wrapped up by six tentacles that squeezed and throttled her. She struggled to press out of them with her constricted arms.

I watched the fight as the glassy chip broke into sharp shards in my mouth. After the first couple of chews, I thought that eating the chip might not be as bad as it had been hyped up to be.

Then, my mouth exploded.

The razor fragments of the crystalline chip shot out in all directions within my mouth. Jagged edges dug into my tongue, my hard palate, my cheeks. They gave me the tonsillectomy I’d never had the pleasure of experiencing in my youth. I yelped and blood streamed out of my mouth as the needling fragments of the chip melted, then shot through my veins with an icy heat.

Pain radiated across my entire body and I could see an unfamiliar pattern of hair-thin veins pulse with blue-white light beneath my skin. I felt them crawl across my face and when the phenomenon made it to my eyes, my vision became a bright, blinding flash. My mana shot back up to full, then the pain got worse. I fell to my knees, struggling to stay aware of anything outside of my body. A new debuff appeared over my health, and my interface was the only thing I could still see clearly.

Mana Overload: Your mana veins have been damaged. You are unable to regenerate mana for the next 24 hours. Any attempt at recovering mana will result in loss of health.

I gasped and looked back up. Varrin was staring at me with the kind of expression one makes when watching someone else eat shit while skateboarding. I managed to get back to my feet, the adrenaline and endorphin hit from the internal blitzkrieg the only thing keeping me upright.

“Ok,” I said, slurring the words out of my ruined mouth, “let’s strategize a bit.”

As soon as I spoke, Xim’s transformation wore off.