My magic managed to deal with my injured ribs well enough. I would be tender for a while, Blood Magic was very limited when it came to mending bones, but it would have to do. Not for the first time, I wondered if there would be some way to find a real healer, most likely some sort of divine-spellcaster, to join our group. They seemed to have a monopoly on the general purpose healing-magic, able to cure anything, if they had enough power and followed the right god. At the same time, I knew that I wouldn’t just let anyone join us, there’d have to be a feeling of compatibility. For now, that was all just a vague idea anyway, without even a potential candidate, there was no need to dwell on things.

After retreating from the bolotnisa, we had made our way to the small clearing we had used for the first week of killing undead in the swamp and set up camp for the night. As most evenings, I was the one cooking, giving me ample time to think about the fight while the venison-stew was simmering.

The fight itself, at least what we had seen from it, seemed to be reasonably simple. Shambling Crawlers came out of the water in waves, each wave a little faster than the one before, forcing people to deal with them. That could either be done by destroying them or, maybe, by getting their attention and simply running away. The crawlers were quite slow, so simply keeping a distance might work but it would allow them to accumulate.

In the meantime, the real enemy was the bolotnisa, sitting on her stupid lily in the middle of a lake that served both as defense and offense for her. I couldn’t see a way for melee-fighters like Sigmir and Rai to get at her, maybe if I created platforms with my Ice-Magic, but that seemed to be a risky proposition. No, melees were at a massive disadvantage in that particular fight. That essentially left Adra and me to destroy the boss, something we could do, but the water-waves seemed to be an excellent defense against low-powered attacks. If we wanted to get through, we’d have to concentrate fire and overwhelm it. Or we could try to split, but at the end of the day, Adra’s last arrow had punched through the water-defense, making me think that the water-wall simply reduced the damage by a set amount, not a percentage of the attack itself.

For offense, the bolotnisa’s most powerful weapon seemed to be her mind-magic, especially the initial spell that had started the encounter. I wasn’t sure if we’d fare better now that we knew about the danger, I certainly hoped so, but I had a feeling that unprepared groups would suffer severely from it. Otherwise, the lake’s water seemed to be filled with deadly energy, turning it into a weapon all of itself, either as a water-jet, more a physical attack than using the properties of the water, as a wave, using purely the deadly properties of the water to damage and heal the crawlers or, finally, as orbs, combining both, but to a lesser degree.

And finally, to round the fun out, there was the massive water-wave that had triggered after our last attack, either due to the amount of damage we dealt at once or it was something triggering depending on the total damage we had dealt, either mechanic had been used in the past. Or it was something else, which was always possible. But for now, I’d go with my assumptions and base my tactics on what we had seen.

I kept mostly quiet as we ate, still thinking about ways to deal with the bolotnisa until Adra spoke up.

“So, did seeing that thing complete our quest? Is she the source of trouble in the swamp?” she asked, making me stop for a moment, a little flabbergasted. I had pushed the fact that our quest was to investigate into the background, focusing on the simple task of killing the boss. But did we have to?

A quick glance into the quest-log told us that, maybe, we did. The quest wasn’t completed just yet and, if I was honest with myself, I wanted to get the bonus-objective anyway. Not just for the reward but also for the experience-points we were getting. Sure, the crawlers were giving next to nothing but the wisps were still there, giving decent experience to say nothing of the experience I hoped we’d get from the bolotnisa and similar enemies. The swamp was a big enough advantage that I was questioning the wisdom of the balance-team. There had to be similar environments out there and, if the world’s logic held, powerful groups would try to keep them controlled and contained, not destroy them. Sure, destroying the source would give us a lot of experience and maybe additional benefits but if a regional power had access to such a treasure-trove of experience, they would want to keep it going as long as possible.

That thought made me wonder whether the shambling crawlers were actually respawning, giving us a virtually limitless amount of them, or if some unknown force was guiding them towards us, maybe the same force that used magic to attack during their ambushes, and we were simply slowly depleting the massive swamp. Even with the time we had spent in it, Lenore had flown up and reported that the mist seemed to cover a huge area, maybe twenty kilometers wide and of similar length. There could easily be tens of thousands of those crawlers hiding in the muck and we’d never know. Even the Bolotnisa was just a few kilometers in, not nearly in the center of it.

“No, the quest is still open.” I finally answered, looking over to Adra. “But even without it, I think I’d want to go back in there anyway. Just think about it, even you might gain a lot of power from the swamp. Didn’t you use quite a bit Death Astral-Power to cross the first Divide? If we destroy whatever is controlling the power in the swamp, that’s a lot of free power floating around.” I continued, causing her to frown a little.

“I’m not sure if it would be healthy for me to absorb that. What I did with the tree of Tegi worked because she stored an insane amount of Life Energy in her tree, allowing me to balance the other energies. Here, I don’t have anything similar, at least I don’t think I do.” she explained, while Lenore spoke up, using our mental connection.

“I can absorb the power and would be grateful if we can go back there.” she admitted, a powerful hunger in her voice.

“Still, we gained a lot of power in there.” I prodded, wanting the others to agree with the idea to go back in.

“We did. Okay, what do you have in mind?” Sigmir asked, giving me a grin.

“I think we can defeat the bolotnisa. The real problem is that we need to get past that water-wall. You managed to pierce it, with your last arrow. How often can you use one of those?” I asked Adra.

“Not too often, it takes a bit of time and quite a bit of power. I might be able to shoot five, maybe six, if I fire them as quick as possible.” she answered, causing me to nod in understanding.

“I don’t think we should try it like that. But we have one massive advantage I forgot about. Lenore, if I mostly channel Dark Magic through you, do you think you could fly above, allowing me to circumvent the water walls?” I asked, speaking out loud so that the others could follow the idea. Lenore left her Hallow, moving onto my shoulder, before answering, once again using my voice.

“It might work but if I’m the only one going for it, I’ll be attacked. I don’t fancy to be the sole target of that thing’s ire.” she admitted.

“I see two options. Either we try it with you flying above or we split, while you have to stay with Adra and Sigmir, Lenore. I need you to be with them so I can channel magic through you if that thing gets them with its Mind Magic. Sadly, I don’t know if I can ward you against it, so I need to be able to help, if you get caught.” I explained, the others nodding in response.

“That way, we can split, just like we did for that last attack.” I finished.

“There’s another way. I think I can use my new skills to teleport onto that lily-pad and once there, I don’t think that thing can do a lot to me.” Rai suggested, sounding quite eager to use his new class skills. Sadly, I had to reject his idea.

“It might work, yes. But you forget one thing, it would be a last ditch, desperate effort. If you fail, or if that thing has some way to deal with attackers close up, you are dead. Unless we are with the back to the wall, that’s not a valid tactic.” I explained, finally shaking my head. He looked a little crestfallen but Adra reached out, hugging his shoulder and pulling him close.

Hopefully, he wouldn’t try something dumb, just to prove his manliness.