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Chapter 317: Why Do They Always Run?

Jhuarkasha was momentarily in shock at Rhuuk’s demise. He looked from the large violet glowstone to me and back, then started running toward the exit in the center of the massive chamber. In my best Tommy Lee Jones voice, I mused to myself, “Why do they always run?” I was not in good shape to chase the orc cleric, with my injuries only partially healed. He could have at least been polite and given me half an hour to self-heal.

A rope of lightning wrapped his waist and promptly exploded in a thundering flash. He stumbled and stood, uninjured, and began to run again once he regained his feet. Mynasha repeated her attack, and this time the cleric fell, moderately wounded. It appeared he hadn’t reestablished all his defenses. Her third attack was diverted to the ceiling, exploding a red crystal forty feet off the ground in a brilliant shower of red sparkles.

I shielded my eyes as I was covered in chips and flakes of glowing red crystals. “Stop!” I shouted at her. Regaining my sight, I saw the air around her heat as she pulled more aether to herself. She looked at me questioningly and I approached her, talking while I walked. “The dretches will get him. You said we couldn’t kill them.” I wasn’t sure how good the Elder Truthseekers were, but plausible deniability was always best. My bone inscriptions might protect me, but Mynasha didn’t have my advantages against truth magics.

“You killed Rhuuk, and Jhuarkasha has no honor,” she rebuked me. She looked a little angry that the cleric hadn’t relinquished the snake demon horns.

“I didn’t kill Rhuuk. He was just standing in the wrong place at the wrong time,” I said, smirking. Her forehead creased before she mirrored my grin in realization. Jhuarkasha screamed for help as the first dretch reached him, but this just caused a buzzing of stirges to gather overhead. I stood next to Mynasha and watched him try to consume potions to maintain his defenses.

He was surprisingly successful as the minutes dragged on. It was clear he had a lot of aether and was practiced in shielding, even though I judged him a lackey. The problem was that he wasn’t moving, and the dretches were slowly calling in support from their brethren. Four dretches now circled him and four stirges buzzed above him. He lasted much longer than I gave him credit for—almost twenty minutes—and he even managed to kill two stirges, although four took their place.

Mynasha relaxed as the dretches tore the body apart and consumed the flesh greedily. They didn’t stop with the flesh, and their jaws soon splintered and ground the bones noisily. It was one of the most gruesome displays I had seen on Desia. I lamented the loss of the essence, but I was not in any shape to fight the four dretches and the six stirges now circling.

I decided to use the collector on Rhuuk before he stopped producing an essence. I wasn’t sure if I needed to remove the glowstone grave marker to get the collector closer, so I activated it near his exposed shoulder. The aetheric essence was just thin wisps, so I definitely needed to move it closer to the heart. The major essence that formed was pale yellow, reminding me of a large lemon drop—an insight essence. An odd essence for a warrior.

I looked toward Juarkasha’s corpse, where now seven dretches were feasting, and lamented the loss of the cleric’s essence again. There would be nothing left to use the collector on. I turned away to approach the ice demon entrance.

“We don’t need the ice demon if we can recover the snake demon horns,” Mynasha said logically. I ignored her as my eyes locked on my black spear. The demonic rock was practically touching it, waiting for me to try and reclaim it.

“I want to reclaim my spear. Will you help?” I asked, not taking my eyes off it.

To her credit, Mynasha nodded and joined me in support. “I can be ready in a few minutes,” she said as she started drawing aether again. I nodded and remained standing, my eyes fixed on the spear while drinking water to restore my fluids. I strapped on bands of small metal spikes that would allow me to move on the ice.

I waited until Mynasha stood beside me, her own ice spikes attached to her boots. We stepped across the threshold, me with magebane in one hand and a shield in the other. The other end of the short corridor sealed us in, a wall of blue glowstone now blocking our exit. The wash of cold air caused goosebumps to rise on my skin, as the temperature was already below freezing. Our breath formed clouds in front of us. Inhaling deeply hurt my lungs.

When we talked with Glasha, we had already developed plans for each demon. Unfortunately, the hellhound had not cooperated, and now the ice demon was doing the same. The rock unfolded to a standing posture, powdered snow falling off its bony exoskeleton. A nine-foot golem-looking demon stood before us, holding my damn spear!

“I am going to need that back,” I said heatedly. Instead of cooperating, the ice demon crouched and launched itself at us. Lightning and air shields hindered its movement as we circled on the icy ground, our spikes gouging the ice as we moved. The demon was not skilled with the spear and swung it wildly. Normally, the creature fought with its impressive claws, but it seemed to like my weapon.

Its massive hind legs could launch it forward at an impressive speed, but the bony plates made it slow to turn, so as long as we kept circling, we could stay out of its reach. One mistake and the thousand-pound demon would grapple us, and it would be the end.

Our plan, and the plan of most warlords who fought this demon, was to get a blade in its knee joint. If we succeeded in that, its movement would be greatly hindered. The problem was getting close enough. It was swinging my spear in a massive arc like a fly swatter. The floor was treacherous, and we could slip on an ice patch at the worst possible moment, even with the metal spikes we wore.

As the temperature dropped rapidly, I began to worry. “Do you want me to?” Mynasha asked. Our plan B was for her to spray her lightning and hope she hit the monster. She was already channeling so much aether for her shields that her halter top was gone and her leather skirt was not far behind. On the positive side, the aetheric aura around her seemed to be holding off the cold for her. She was actually glistening with sweat.

“No, I will try to disable it,” I responded. I had studied the ice demon’s movements, and it was mostly predictable, but the last thing I wanted to do was test the black spear against my armor. I had seen the spear in action too many times and had watched it easily part armor and flesh. I closed in on the demon, going into a slide as it swept the spear in an arc. It passed a few feet over my head as my body slammed into the bony leg. Magebane sought the joint and I forced it between two bony plates.

I planted both my feet on its shin and pushed off, sliding backward in plenty of time before the spear came crashing down in a spray of ice chunks. Its movements reminded me of a clumsy robot. With magebane embedded in its knee, it could no longer bend the joint or turn rapidly. Boris’s sword appeared in my hand, replacing magebane. I had been hoping magebane would disrupt its ability to keep dropping the temperature, but the air did not feel any different. I couldn’t wait to find out, as my sweat was crystallizing to ice as soon as it formed on my skin.

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“I will circle and attack it from behind,” I yelled to Mynasha. Her lightning shields had effectively restricted its movements, but my time was running out, and Mynasha had some difficulty moving on the ice while pulling aether from the environment. If cold incapacitated me, we would lose.

I quickly got behind the demon and hacked away at the bony plates. Splinters of frozen bone peppered my face as I focused my swings. The progress was too slow, so I risked trying to remove the creature’s head. Glasha had been right; it was a highly magical creature with strong aether resistance. Just not strong enough to resist me. The demon’s body froze and slowly toppled over.

The exit was no longer barred, but the temperature was still well below freezing. Mynasha was already heading for the exit. As she stopped gathering aether, the cold she had been shielded from suddenly rushed to her.

I reclaimed my black spear, noting the reward chest near the wall of the chamber. It looked like a solid, square block of ice, and it could wait. Some things couldn’t. As the cold air stole my body heat through my sweat, I shivered uncontrollably, waiting for enough aether to retrieve the collector. I managed to work magebane out of the demon’s knee and sheathe it while a thin layer of frost slowly formed on my body.

When the time came, I was numb and my mind was foggy. The collector yielded an apex water essence. Just what I had been hoping for. I stumbled out of the demon room into the hot, humid air of the main chamber. Mynasha had been watching me and gave me a mother’s disapproving look. “It could have waited,” she chastised. I just shivered in response. Maybe, but I had guessed that I might have gotten only a major essence if I waited longer.

Mynasha allowed me to warm up slowly while she guarded us. The area was clear and the dretches had finally finished with Jhuarkasha’s corpse, having dispersed and returned to wandering again. We needed to see about claiming what was left of Rhuuk and Jhuarkasha’s gear, and I also wanted to go on a quasit hunt now that we were not rushed.

I returned to claim the block of ice when I was mostly healed and somewhat thawed out. I stored it and brought it to the main chamber to thaw out. I could see silver coins contained in what looked like a large porcelain serving bowl with runic writing on it. While the ice melted, I reclaimed most of the large violet glowstone so I could sort through the disgusting mess that was Warlord Rhuuk.

All that I was able to claim from the human pancake was his runic broadsword and a silver runic ring. Everything else was damaged beyond salvaging and covered with his bodily fluids.

“Do you have the ice demon horns?” Mynasha asked. After I nodded, she asked, “Are we returning to the surface?”

“Not yet. I want to see if we can catch more of the quasits.” She nodded slowly in understanding. “We will see what remains of Jhuarkasha soon,” I said, tapping on the icy prison I sat on. It took nearly two hours for the block to melt, releasing three dozen large silver coins and the large bowl, which was decorated with scenes of demons fighting. The scenes, featuring a wide array of demons, required careful observation, as the runes blended into the images.

“Glasha will use her lore spell on it for you,” Mynasha said after I had spent half an hour studying it. I was trying to piece together the runes I could see but was having difficulty. When I thought I was on the right track, I would find minuscule runes on a demon’s sword or boots. I was skeptical about giving it aether since I did not know the bowl’s purpose.

We walked to where Jhuarkasha had met his end, cutting down a pair of dretches and harvesting them before reaching him. A pair of stirges were trying to suck blood from the stony cracks in the floor. I cut them down and harvested them as well. There was nothing left of the cleric besides bloody, shredded robes. We didn’t need the snake demon horns, so we did not search for them. The dretches might have eaten them.

We searched the area, finding some non-runic gear that was now ruined. “Did he have any artifacts?” I asked Mynasha after searching for a time.

“A talisman and bracer …” She paused, thinking. “That is all I remember.”

We expanded our search and looked for those items, not finding anything after cutting down four more pig-men. I theorized, “Maybe the dretches ate them?” Did I really want to cut open the stomachs of the foul creatures? In the end, I tried searching the stomachs of four dretches near the kill site. While I found some partially digested orc flesh during the nauseating work, I didn’t find any artifacts.

We turned our attention to attracting the quasits. The chamber was less than half a mile across, but the wandering dretches would attack you if you got within twenty yards of them. I took the opportunity to add blocks of yellow, red, and green glowstone to my space.

The shadow demon chamber appeared ominous, with only a faint green glow emanating from within. We were not going to tempt fate by challenging the strongest demon. That was why our progress was slow as we searched for the elusive green imps. Seven dretches and four stirges later, I finally spotted one. It was sitting on a small boulder, nibbling on a yellow mushroom.

The tiny creature eyed us suspiciously as we approached. If Mynasha used her lightning, there would be nothing left to use the collector on. I hoped it would turn invisible and try to hide. Instead, the bastard dashed away with its mushroom prize. “Why is the little shit running away?” I cussed.

The pursuit became a tedious and frustrating game of endless cat and mouse as the quasit kept out of range, always stopping to sit and watch us while eating its mushroom. I tried to leave nuts on the ground to lure it, but it didn’t seem interested—maybe it was aware I was trying to trick it. When I left one of my few remaining apples for it, another quasit snagged it while I was focused on the first.

When I got upset, Mynasha warned me to calm down, but she was clearly amused. “They are tricksters and thieves. It is their nature, and they will use your frustration to make you make a mistake.” I grunted in response, not liking that a small green demon was besting me. The second quasit was invisible and hiding between two rocks with its prize apple. I moved within range and stored the entire creature inside my dimensional space. I wasn’t surprised by its strong resistance to my space magic—but I still overcame it.

The original quasit immediately became upset, chittering at us in an unfamiliar language as it frantically searched for its missing companion. I just grinned at its dismay in triumph. “Let’s go, Mynasha.”

She was surprised as I started heading back to the chamber’s center. The quasit was not done with us, trying to get revenge by luring dretches and stirges to us. I welcomed the easy kills and essences. I was just waiting till the creature made a mistake and got close enough to snag.

Its thirst for vengeance overcame its caution. With my back turned, it rushed me while it was invisible. My earth speak told me exactly where it was, and it joined its companion in my dimensional space. Mynasha was not even aware I had taken the second imp.

The exit portal loomed in front of us. I had gathered almost fifty lesser quickness essences and half that number of lesser charm essences. Only a few dretches roamed in the distance now.

We left and started ascending the numerous steps to the surface. Mynasha was correct; these stairs were exhausting after a day of intense fighting in the dungeon. When we finally reached the top and stepped outdoors, the bright, early-morning sun shone directly in our faces and blinded us. A field of tents encircled the stone building, and an unusual horn sounded to notify everyone of our emergence.

The warlords, clerics, and Elders rushed to see who had emerged first. Mynasha had a bag in each hand, one with a hellhound skull and the other with an ice demon head. I could tell the Elders were not happy that we had emerged first. Mynasha was shuffled off to be questioned by the Elders, and I was left standing alone under the intense glare of warlords and clerics.

Glasha approached and saved me. She pulled me aside to talk privately. “What happened to Jhuarkasha? Is he coming?”

“The dretches got him,” I stated simply, in case we were being spied on. She looked shocked.

“What about Warlord Rhuuk? Didn’t he protect him?” she asked as she came to terms with the good news.

With a flat tone, I informed her of his fate: “He got stuck between a rock and a hard place.”

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