NOVEL NEXT Ch. 44: Gophers
They continued in silence down the hall. Every room was full of more destroyed guards, their masks dented and beaten, their bodies mangled.
Behind you! Salos shouted.
Cass spun. Something popped up from the solid stone. A child-sized figure.
It was a skeletal creature, glowing green energy for flesh, wearing the metal plates and gopher mask as armor. It was equipped with two pairs of clawed arms. Its feet were unseen, still hiding within the stone floor.
Her staff caught the first swipe of its claws.
Marco caught the second set on his shield.
But there was another creature behind him.
The second gopher’s claws raked across the back of his legs. He grunted.
“I’ve got this one!” Cass yelled.
He nodded. A light built on his shield. It exploded off like a wave crashing on the beach, carrying the gopher sprawling backward.
More are coming! Salos warned. Cass repeated his warning as she swung her staff down on the reeling monster’s mask. Her staff glanced off the metal. If she’d done damage, she couldn’t tell.
Salos was on her shoulder again, his fur bristling.
Another to your right!
A gopher erupted from the stone floor half a second after his warning.
The room was overwhelmed with them.
Aventis Gopher (Lvl 19) x 3
Aventis Gopher (Lvl 20) x 4
Aventis Gopher (Lvl 21) x 2
Aventis Gopher (Lvl 22)
[A guard of the Vaisom Catacombs. Well known for appearing without warning from any solid surface and taking out knees or ankles. Their preferred method of hunting is systematically cutting their targets from the bottom, working their way up as the target falls. They are dangerous not only for their individual power but also for their tendency to hunt in packs.]
That was a lot of them. Most swarmed Marco, bringing up the rear, with two each on Alyx and Cass.
Cass Dodged another string of swipes. Their claws were more like scythes than the claws of any natural creature.
She swung a Mana Wind Blade into the next one’s side. The blade broke on their metal armor, but the staff dented the panel.
The first gopher sliced back, clipping her leg before she could get out of the way.
Salos leapt from her shoulder, his claws digging into the glowing energy behind the masks. The rodent screamed. It was more akin to a kettle steaming than any noise an animal should be able to make, and it left Cass’s skin crawling.
Aim for the true body, ignore its armor! Salos instructed.
Cass swung for the head again, this time focusing on the unarmored side rather than the mask. A set of claws caught her staff mid-flight, and another set plunged forward to strike her back.
She didn’t have time to get out of the way. The claws tore through her thigh. Color inverted. An exhaustion sunk into her muscle. Liminal Dodge had saved her.
Stamina: 63/105
And it had cost her in the ballpark of 40 Stamina to do it. Better than losing the leg, obviously, but not something she should do repeatedly if she could avoid it.
Behind her, Alyx had taken down one of her two. On the opposite side, Marco knocked the things away from him one after another, their armor heavily dented, several missing claws. Salos was busy ripping out the insides of one of the two near her, strands of something not quite solid and glowing green flying into the air with every flex of his claws.
Cass had to beat the remaining one and go help Marco. Striking its armor was pointless. She didn’t have the Strength to break through it. Like Salos had said, she needed to target the soft body within. But it was fast to defend those places. Her staff wasn’t fast enough.
She had to try something else.
She slammed her staff into the ground, willing Elemental Manipulation to grab the stone floor and yanked it up, forming a spear. It went through a joint in its arm, skewering the green ectoplasm like it wasn’t even there.
Except, the gopher acted like the spike wasn’t there either. It swung at Cass again, its elbow passing through the spike.
Cass’s eyes went wide as she stumbled back. The gopher followed, another swing of its claws sliding through the pillar like it wasn’t even there.
Cass parried with her staff, cursing. Perhaps that should have been obvious. The things were sitting up to their waists in stone without issue after all.
What else could she do?
Unaffected by stone spikes. Too fast to hit its weak points with her staff. Too sturdy to hit its armored points. It was too close to throw a Wind Blade.
But then, why was she fighting so close to it? Sure, it had appeared next to her and initially she’d wanted to keep it off of Marco, but he had his situation handled now. The gophers ran at him repeatedly, repeatedly knocked back. What would one more on him mean? Especially if she was thinning other members of that herd?
Cass leapt back. The gopher surged after her, but as fast as it could strike, it was still far slower in chasing Cass across the room.
She threw a Wind Blade as she ran, pulling its path into an arc, swinging around behind her. She directed it into the back of the monster’s head. It cut deep into that fleshy ectoplasm and through the skull within. The thing collapsed, like a puppet with its strings cut.
Cass grinned. It was that easy? What had she been doing?
She threw another blade at the mess rushing Marco. #3 and #4 went down just as easily, their back’s unguarded.
#5, pealed off Marco, its eye less mask turning to face Cass. Something glinted in those empty sockets. With a scream, it raced toward her.
Suddenly, Alyx was in between them, her sword—glowing amber and trailing light—slashed into it. Behind her, the two (#6 and #7) that had attacked her lay in a battered pile, dark and dead. #5 staggered back, a clawed hand holding her sword back from its neck. The claw was noticeably dented from the attempt.
Salos disappeared from his gopher (#8) as its lights went out, reappearing on the opposite of #5. His claws found that unarmored space in its elbow and one of its four arms fell uselessly to the ground.
Cass threw another Wind Blade over Alyx’s shoulder, arching it into the back of #9 as it lunged for Marco. It collapsed into scrap as his shield knocked #10 flat on its back. He stepped on its chest and rammed his sword through an eyehole in the mask. It screeched as it died.
Alyx and Salos had removed another limb from #5. It scrambled after Alyx, desperate and screeching. Alyx deflected the strike, while Salos leapt on its shoulder, his claw digging deep into its flesh.
Its scream turned from rage to abject terror as his claws raked through the ectoplasm, silenced only by the monstrous downward strike Alyx inflicted on its body, severing it in two.
Staff Mastery has increased to level 13.
Wind Blade has increased to level 12.
Mana Blade has increased to level 7.
Level Up!
+ 1 Dex
+ 1 End
+ 1 Wll
+ 1 Ala
+ 4 Free Points
Cass breathed in the elation of a new level. It was the first since Uvana and as powerful as ever.
Her 4 free points she dropped directly into Wll. She had a team finally. She didn’t have to fight on the front lines anymore. That meant it was finally time to focus on her ranged magic attacks, Wind Blade and Elemental Manipulation, both of which were affected most strongly by Wll.
Wll 54 -> 58
Expanding Wll was always a little strange. The physical stats had obvious effects: faster and stronger movements, greater physical stamina. Every point in Fortitude dulled the pain in her all too common wounds. Every point in Perception sharpened the world around her.
But Wll wasn’t like that at all. She didn’t feel any more stubborn, but rather, like there was more force behind what she wanted. Like the world needed to bend more to her unreasonable demands of it than it needed to a moment before.
Perhaps that was just a stubborn impulse fed by that growing Will. Perhaps it was nothing more than the manifestation of magic in her.
“Injuries?” Marco asked as he hobbled over to Cass and Alyx.
Cass shook her head. Her armor had taken a scrape, but her body was fine, if only because of Dodge.
“Lacerations, right leg,” Alyx said. “Not deep. I can walk.”
Marco nodded. “Lacerations, back of both legs. I’ll live. Hurts like a demon, though.”
“Good,” Alyx said. She glanced toward the door ahead of them. “Are the groups ahead purposefully leaving threats for us or are things wandering out of the sides?”
Marco shook his head. “Could be either. Could be both.”
“Let’s go. Keep your eyes out for ambushes.”